Our best speed for our trip! Sailing along at half the wind speed; not too shabby for a bunch of newbies. All three sails up; main, jib and screacher. Screacher makes all the difference.

It's all about the numbers

The winds picked up; the screacher came in. The waves got sloppy and Benj spent much of the trip making sure he did not succumb to seasickness.

We motor-sailed with the main into New Harbor, took a quick turn into the wind and in record time dropped the main and headed to the mooring field to pick up one of the many (relatively speaking for Block) still available.

Overall we were happy with our progress and had gotten to know Ortolan fairly well. Not happy that the auto-pilot never worked, but with three of us taking turns (ok, Russ did the most and Benj took the helm when we sailed) we made the best of it.
Hung out at Block for four days; dense fog and then high winds keeping us there for the last two days.
A pleasant – unfortunately another day heading with the wind- trip through BI Sound, The Race and into a flat calm LI Sound. Home waters; we are happy.