Finally, on July 30, we picked Astraea up from Svendsen's and sailed her back to her berth at Emery Cove.  We sailed her pretty gently that day, as she had experienced major work over the past several months and we wanted to make sure that everything worked and nothing was going to fall off!  

However, on Sunday, August 6, we had the chance to take her out and do a true "shakedown" cruise.  Man, did this baby sail!  It was at typical August day in San Francisco Bay, with the winds that afternoon hitting 15-20 knots.  And Astraea, with her new rigging, new bottom, and new sails, was ready to stretch her legs.  Also, our lessons with Suzette had also DRASTICALLY improved our sailing skills, and confidence, so we were more willing to let her have her head, so to speak.    We started out with one reef and full 120 percent Genoa.   And she took off like a rocket!  (Relatively speaking).  Our new B&G was registering over ten knows.  I think this was a little high, and it probably needs calibrating.  However our GPS was consistently showing over eight knots.  Because of the high winds, and also because we had not sailed for several months, we decided to leave the reef in and not raise the mizzen.  After all, we were already doing hull speed! 

RAIL DOWN!  Astrae is flying with a reef in, full Genoa, and no mizzen! 

Our new sails from Lee Sails were filled with wind.   Well, one reef in, but hey, it was our first day out for a long time.  We were a little cautious. 

Our new B&G pitlog was showing 10.3 knots.  It may need some slight calibration, however our GPS was showing over 8.5, so it was not far off. 

It was a great day, and we were heading toward Racoon Straits, and ZAP, the starboard winch failed.     This was a little disconcerting as I had just disassembled and cleaned and greased it!   Without a starboard winch we decided to head back to Emery Cove on a starboard tack and take her back in for repair of the winch.   (After some reading I found out that getting grease on the pawls and pawl springs is a no-no.  Another disassembly and cleaning of the grease off the pawls fixed the problem).

However, for our first time out in several months it was an awesome day of sailing!