Shake down cruise for the Mazda and Little Dragon

Sold the Subie and now a Mazda CX5 Maxx 2012 AWD

I miss my Subie but she was grumbling about towing Little Dragon up hills and was getting elderly. So I have replaced her with a very flash Mazda that also has a 2 litre engine but much better fuel consumption. The Mazda towed Little Dragon up hills with ease. Not quite so good at backing down the ramp even though the Mazda has a reversing camera. Maybe I have lost the knack as it is over 6 months since Little Dragon's last voyage. I did observe that someone else found it unusually difficult when they had a go. The trailer just didn't respond right. I expect it just means more practice.

Eve Schoenheimer 

I was glad to have Eve along to crew. It is the first time she has sailed with me but she is an experienced blue water sailor with ambitions to own her own yacht. After an afternoon in Little Dragon she is thinking that a trailer sailor might be the way to go.

We headed downriver to the Goodwood mark. As so often happens it blew up well above the forecast 14 knots and was quite joggly for a while. I knew that on the return the wind would be on the nose and that we would be against the ebb tide. So I was quite prepared to motor for the last bit, the motor needed a good workout. That went fine except that we ran out of fuel just 100 metres from the ramp. Not a serous problem just a delay while I refueled.

In summary all went well on the shakedown cruise except the jib furler. The furler has been a problem for a while and we tried out a new strategy but it failed miserably and it just refused to furl. Lucky I had competent crew. Eve was able to drop the jib and lash it to the foredeck, otherwise we would have had it flogging. More thought needed.... A jib on a furler that won't furl is dangerous.