Here we go again!

We found Pilger in Iroquois Boatyard, with thanks to Gratton Sheely. She needed her lid put on, her new bronze ports installed, some rot at the prop/shaft area attended to and various other things done to get her sea-worthy. Not being absolute perfectionists, we thought we would do the interior later. So you get no pictures of her interior! No, we thought we would...

finish painting her and just drop her right in!

Ta dah!

She didn't seem to mind!

Up went the masts,


On went the sails (only took three days for that!) By the way, this is our new friend Kate helping to hoist the fore sail. And yes, Pilger is a Chinese Junk Rig. Also called lug rig by the Brits, but the Asians got them first. Designed by a Mr. Colvin, her model name is a Gazelle.





Piled in the dog and away we went!

So! We have another boat! To make a long story short, we came, we saw, we bought. No one has ever needed more of an explanation! We took four beautiful days to drive her to Picton Harbour via Kingston, Deadman's Cove and Prenyear's Cove. Day One we made average 6 knots over the ground with main & fore sails. Wow! Day two we ran wing and wing (or wing and wong, as dubbed by Annie Hill, fellow junk-rig enthusiast) over flat water and still averaged 4.5-5 knots. Wow! Came into kingston in very light wind and still made pretty good way. I love this rig! Quick to get the sails up, the sails tack by themselves, no reefs to tie when the wind pipes up, you merely drop a panel. The only difficult thing about her is that it was hard to decide to not keep going!

Robin and Kate joined us for this trip, very helpful and able crew. They taught us more about Vegan cuisine and I taught Kate to crotchet! They are staying at our place for a few days, our first Couch-Surfers, and it's been fun showing them around Picton.

So we have decided to stay home for the winter and make plans to cruise in the spring. Out the St. Lawrence maybe.

Now I'm going home to sleep!