14 May 2003
Launch Day! We had hoped and planned to launch Ariel weeks ago, but there was always another project that needed doing – and the weather wasn’t conducive to painting, launching or being afloat.
Davie had done a marvelous job of getting things done but we seriously underestimated the time it takes to do things. Even though Ariel was in sailing shape when we bought her, there were things we wanted to do. Here’s the work list we drew up after we bought her:

Remove radar mast from transom	Install new bilge pump and switch	Install second anchor and rode
Mount radome on main mast	Buy and install autopilot	Install cabin fans
Refinish exterior teak	Replace gaskets around cockpit lockers	Make insect screens for hatches
Oil interior woodwork	Epoxy holes in transom from radar mast	Service all seacocks
Install battery charger	Letter her name on transom	Change engine oil and filters
Replace engine compartment insulation	Paint the bottom	Polish and wax topsides, decks, house
Install GPS	Service all winches	Rig flag halyards on spreaders
Angle spreaders to bisect shroud angle	Paint inside all lockers	Replace sanitation hose from head to holding tank
Renew non-skid	Repair crack in holding tank fitting	Move bottom of anchor locker lower

None of this really needed to be done (except for routine maintenance items like engine oil and filters, bottom paint, teak work and seacock service) and we could have sailed her through the summer season just as she was when she arrived on the truck from her previous owner. She had never been sailed hard or neglected. As a fresh water boat, stored in shrink wrap through the long Upstate New York winters, the years had been kind to her. Some of what we wanted to do we wanted to do for the same reason that new mothers unwrap their babies and count all their toes – just to make her really ours – not because they were really necessary for safety or performance.
The only thing that really bothered me was the radar mast that stuck up from her beautiful stern and ruined her classic good looks. I debated dumping the radar unit completely – though I have a healthy appreciation for radar from my days spent sailing big boats around islands of Micronesia in the Pacific, I knew I could live without it, and I am an electrical miser – I hate adding anything to the boat that consumes electricity. Since we had it, we decided to keep it, and decided to mount the radome on the mast just above the spreaders. This meant purchasing a mast mount and a cable extension and drilling a hefty hole into the mast for the thumb-sized cable to enter. If I had it to do over again, I would save the money, save the effort, save the windage aloft and save the metal in the mast! I am reminded of the story of the white elephant: the gift you can’t afford to accept!
Anyway, launch day arrived and we were still in chaos. The good news was that the chaos was contained in the cabin. We could launch – but first we had to apply the vinyl letters of her name to the transom. A friend had made these up for us; they were in two parts – gold-leaf letters over black – so they should look great, but we had to get them on and we had never done this before. The launch crew stood and watched, making smart remarks about my technique, while I worked. They looked great!
Now, smart with fresh bottom paint, polished and waxed topsides and a resplendent new name, Ariel was picked up on her cradle, moved to the launch site, lifted by the travel lift and gently placed into the murky waters of West Basin Marina. We had a moment of anxiety when Davie popped out of the engine room to report that the engine cooling water intake fitting was leaking, but decided to wait and see rather than to pull her back out to deal with it. (In a few hours it stopped.)
We installed batteries and tried the engine. A little judicious bleeding of diesel fuel and she fired right up. We moved her to a slip – not her permanent slip, which was in a different marina, but to one we could use for a few days while we sorted things out – tied her up and did a major high-five! Success! That which had seemed so impossible not many months before was now a reality. She was ours and she was afloat. We had done it. Thanks be to God who is so incredibly good to us.

15-18 May 2003
Over the next few days we rigged her and sorted out and stowed her gear. We moved her to her permanent slip at Pier 33 Marina – and got a nasty surprise. The marina is on a channel of the St. Joseph river and the current runs through this channel at a pretty hefty rate. We tried three or four times to enter the slip but failed each time. There was no way to enter the slip broadside to the current at a safe speed and get in before being twisted by the current and pinned against the downstream piling. We finally laid up against that downstream piling and powered forward against an after bow spring with the rudder hard over to “blow” the stern away and inch her in. It wasn’t elegant and it was slow, but it worked and nothing got broken or scraped.

1 June 2003
My ten-week sabbatical started today. I loaded the car with everything I thought I might need to live on Ariel for the summer and headed for Michigan (five hours away). My plan was to live aboard, to sail where and when I wanted to – mostly with my son, Davie, sometimes with Chris and Jonathan (sometimes joined by friends), and sometimes alone. I was committed to read a crateful of books and to work on a couple of manuscripts I had been scribbling on for some time. I was excited! I had visions of wonderful sailing, visiting new ports along the Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin coasts, and lots of leisure time.
I spent the week working on Davie’s house. He and Carrie were expecting their first baby in August and the nursery needed to get done. New floor, new bathroom, new drywall – two new rooms and a hallway – and there was no way Davie could possibly get it done in time working by himself. Maybe if I worked with him we could not only get it done but get it done in time to do some sailing together. It wasn’t what I planned for my sabbatical, but I was willing if it meant that Davie and I could go sailing – and it was for the grandson (my first!). We busted our butts in the summer heat, but it took forever.
I had to go back to Dayton for our wedding anniversary (number 31) and to pick up a kid (Jon Cobb, son of our good friends Dan and Bev) who was busting to go sailing and fresh out of school.

11 June 2003
Sailing! At last, we are under sail. The sky was overcast, the temperature was a cool 60 degrees, the wind was 15 knots from the northwest. We spent the afternoon tuning the rig, sailing courses, practicing reefing and unreefing, heaving to, calibrating the autopilot and doing a hundred other things that make sailing a delightful challenge.
It was so good to be afloat, under sail on our own boat!

12 June 2003
More of the same. We spent the whole day sailing courses and making adjustments. Weather was cold and drizzly. What did we care?
Tomorrow I need to leave for Mt. Vernon to help out with Faith Fest. I’ll get back as soon as I can but I’m supposed to stay until the 22nd.

21 June 2003
Our first cruise on Ariel! Davie, Carrie and I left St. Joseph about 1000 bound for South Haven, Michigan – the next harbor to the north, distance about 20 miles. It was sort of spontaneous. We didn’t plan or provision – we just went.
It was great! The wind was on the nose the whole way (of course). Ariel does not point very high. She needs to be sailed a bit free. Wind was a light five knots or so, from the north, the sky was clear, the weather fair, the temperature about 68o. It took us 10 hours to get there, even though we motor-sailed the last four miles. We called on the VHF and arranged a slip in the North Side Marina for the night ($31.00).
South Haven is the home of the young party crowd. The place was jumping all night. The marinas are very full, very tight and crowded, but convenient to food and things to do. We went to a great restaurant and spent a wonderful night aboard, though it was a bit cool and we hadn’t brought enough bedding. Carrie and I were okay, but Davie froze. Carrie said she probably wouldn’t be doing much cruising until after the baby came. Apparently being seven months pregnant makes it hard to find a comfortable place on a sailboat. I hadn’t noticed that but my pregnancy developed over 55 years and maybe that gave me more opportunity to adapt to it.

22 June 2003
Sailed home to St. Joseph from South Haven. Wind was again right on the nose, having shifted to the south during the night. It was warmer but the wind was lighter – about 2-3 knots max. Davie went for a swim – a very brief swim (the water temp was 57o). Flies are a real pain when the wind is light. They look like small house flies but they bite.
The trip took about eight and a half hours – average velocity made good about 2.3 knots. Not bad for such light head winds.
Entry into the slip was such a pain that I resolved to find a better way.

23 June 2003
Davie and I spent four hours practicing maneuvers under power. He had never handled a sailboat of Ariel’s size by himself and I wanted to find a better way in and out of the slip. We learned a lot, had some success but not with docking. On my last attempt, I whacked the upstream outer piling with the plow anchor stowed on the end of the bowsprit and cracked the wood holding the axle of the bow roller in place. We gave it up and turned our energies to repairing the bowsprit. All the pieces were there so epoxy and a bevy of clamps put it all back together.

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