I’ve been incommunicado today, giving advanced training on our wonderful product to our other sales engineers. I’m flying without a net, just letting the attendees tell me what they want to learn. I’m having a blast doing it, too. It’s so refreshing to teach something new rather than the same old “introducing our product” spiel. And these guys are smart so I don’t have to belabor the small stuff. They can figure it out.

I’m getting an early start on training tomorrow in an effort to get these guys out of here before Tropical Storm Ernesto pays us a visit Thursday. Sure, the winds will be piddily by the time it gets here but there will still be the threat of flooding and tornadoes. In a way it reminds me of the first training I did when started at $LAST_COMPANY. It was held in the fall of 2003 when the last tropical storm came through Raleigh. We were in the Clarion Hotel in downtown Raleigh: the big round hotel on Hillsborough Street. I’ll never forget the feeling of standing on that balcony and hearing the wind howl through that cylindrical building.

Oh, and another thing. I took the guys back to the hotel after dinner and pulled up right behind a satellite truck for the The Weather Channel. You know if you see these guys show up you’re in for some wild weather!

The sailboat officially became part of the family this weekend, though we don’t have a name for it yet. Then again, that’s how Hallie started off and look where she is today!

I picked it up Friday afternoon and hauled it back home. It was the first time I’ve towed a boat. Everything went well until I got to my neighborhood and collected stares from all of our neighbors, who now probably think we’re loaded. I don’t think I’ll ever be comfortable with appearing wealthy (like I’ll ever have that problem!) Still I don’t like looking pretentious. I parked the boat (or more accurately, I had my CDL-carrying neighbor park the boat) between the houses where conveniently it can’t be seen until you’re right next to it.

There it sat all day Saturday while I attended a boating safety course at Lake Wheeler park and Kelly and the kids did volunteer work for Hallie’s preschool. I had been looking forward to taking it out for a sail Sunday with the previous owner, who volunteered to “show me the ropes,” but got a call during my class from him saying he couldn’t make it. Fortunately, my friend Ralph agreed to take us out and so we made plans for a trip this morning.

I had loaded up the boat with all our safety equipment when we got the call that Ralph was ready to join us. Kelly loaded the kids in the car and we towed the boat down to the boat ramp at Jordan Lake. An hour later, Ralph and I had the boat rigged and ready to go. It would be up to me to back it down the ramp and into the water.

I’d never put a boat in before. If you’ve never done it, it can be the most intimidating thing you can do. I spent fifteen minutes just getting the boat lined up to where it was straight on the ramp. Then a few more harrowing minutes later it was floating free while the minivan’s exhaust pipe blew bubbles in the lapping water. Note to self: minivans aren’t ideal for launching boats.

Once it was in the water the crew could finally board and shove off. I’m used to smaller boats where a good push with my arm can launch them away from the dock. That’s not so effective with this boat since its too big! I turned back to the outboard motor behind me, its bizarre controls unfamiliar and unlabled. I couldn’t even figure out how to lower it into the water! Our fun day was off to a very slow start. I do know how to use a starter rope, so at least I could do something. A bit of fiddling later and our engine was puffing smoke and leading us away from the launching ramps.

I discovered my next problem right then: sailboats and outboards have an uneasy coexistence. The sailboat’s rudder shared steering duty with the outboard, meaning whenever I had to turn the boat I had to steer both the outboard and the rudder. It was easy to forget which needed to be doing what.

Thank goodness Jordan Lake is a big lake! I simply pointed the boat out towards the wind and waited. Ralph put up the sails while Kelly kept the kids entertained in the cabin. With the sails raised, Ralph and I took our positions in the cockpit and waited to start moving.

We waited. And we waited. The wind that was promising a minute earlier had now dwindled considerably. The 10 MPH winds promised by the morning weather forecast had not materialized. We ended up having a wonderful float within clear view of our launching ramp starting point.

By this time it was nearing noon. Kelly and the kids had an appointment to make, so we headed back in. All told, we probably put twice as much time into rigging and unrigging the boat as we did actually sailing. That doesn’t take into account the 45 minutes it took each way to travel from our home to Jordan Lake. We made another note to ourselves to drive separate cars next time we bring the kids. That way the boat could be rigged before they arrive, making the trip more pleasant for them.

And its not like they didn’t have fun, once we were going. All the time spent working on the boat made them hot and cranky. Stuffing them then into a cabin with little air passing through wasn’t adding any to their joy. Still, they did seem to enjoy being topside when there was some wind blowing. I think they’d like to go again.

Kelly was jealous of me for the time I spent topside. She’s itching for the chance to sail her, too. We’re thinking the next sail we take will involve having a babysitter take the kids while we sail. That way we can both concentrate on sailing, rather than keeping our junior sailors occupied.

I had just gone through the holy terror of dragging the boat up the ramp when I looked back to see the wind blowing nicely all across the lake. Bah.

When I returned the boat to our newly-acquired storage space, I backed it into its slot like I’d been doing it all my life. Like everything we did today, we knew that next time would be better. My boat parking certainly improved.

So our “shakedown cruise” wasn’t the best experience we’ve had, but we accomplished what we wanted. We learned how to rig and unrig the boat, we learned how to work the motor, and we gained experience launching and recovering the boat. It wasn’t perfect, but there weren’t any disasters either so we did okay. By the time I’m inviting y’all out for a cruise we’ll have this thing down to a science.

Fair winds and following seas, shipmates.