How Did You Spend Your 4th of July?

 We are aboard Gypsy Rose on this hot 4th of July morning.
  She sails beautifully.
 

Connie and I are loving it. 
She was taking pictures on launch day and did not get in much sailing time 
but today we will be out for several hours.

The temps today will hit 90 degrees Fahrenheit.  
That's why we dressed in light colors to beat the heat.

 Here is Connie, my smiling beauty of a wife with her sailing gloves on.  
39 years together and we are still best friends

Gypsy Rose is a very unique and vintage looking boat 
and
 we can already see that she will attract attention 
wherever we sail her. 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm............Pirate Island??

A board sailor out enjoying the wind and waves.

Lots of flags out today. 
I for one love the USA!

Back in the slip and the weary but happy sailors head for home,
 only 10 minutes away.

She's a little beauty.

Thank you for visiting my blog.  
I look forward to reading your comments 
and hope you have happy times ahead.

Happy sailing everyone!
Steve and Connie.

Launch Day!!!

Yes I'm smiling.  It's launch day! 
And we got her in the water in June!!!

This is what is looked like when we arrived at the marina.

Gray skies, thunder and lightening in the distance.
It might not be the ideal time to raise the mast, 
but I'm ready and have been waiting too long, 
for this day.

This is my friend Matt.  
He's a newbie sailor and came to help.
Matt has a boat of his own, that he is starting to re-do.

Every boat is a little bit different, but basically has similar  rigging,
whether it's a 21 footer like Gypsy Rose or a 100 footer.

Shipping the rudder.

Here we are in the water motoring to the slip,
where we will set the sails.
Because, it's raining off and on and it's her first time out,
I'm only going to set the mainsail, today.

Some of you might be wondering why Connie's not here.
She is, she's behind the camera.

Today we stayed in the little cove by the marina,
hopefully on the 4th the weather will be great and Connie 
and I can raise the jib and get out and explore more of the lake, .

This is way more fun than it looks.  
I had never sailed her before and was delighted 
to find that she handles like a proper yacht.

Here we are coming back into the slip to change passengers.

This is Matt's family, they were excited to take their first sail, ever.
Connie stayed on shore to set the picnic table for lunch and take all these photos.

 This is a photo of the Key Lime cheese cake that Acashia, Matt's wife brought to the picnic.

 She bakes specialty dessert cakes.
You can find her here on face-book:
https://www.facebook.com/lalassweetreats?ref=ts&fref=ts 

How do you like the looks of our beautiful lake?
Smooth Sailing
& 

Happy 4th of July!

Please leave a comment,

Steve