[tweet, tweet] Underway! Shift colors!

Had a great day at sea today! After a little tense underway event just after 10 a.m. (let's face it--I haven't been on a boat this big as one of two crew and wasn't 100% familiar with everything on deck yet!), we motored out and started checking things out. I'll admit the first few swells caught me off guard and being below decks got me a touch queasy!

First issue--GPS/depth/all inputs weren't getting into our nav display. Frank pushed enough buttons to resolve that. Then we wondered about how to empty the holding tanks (just checking the mechanics, too close to land pretty much all around here) and honestly are not sure if there is a way to actually pump the tanks overboard (though surely there is, hubby is reading up on it right now!). I made my first pot of coffee after Frank reminded me to hold down the knob on the stove while hitting the pilot light (very rookie move). The kids amazingly went down for naps very well. Made calls to all the grandparents so they'd know for sure that we were putting their grandchildren in grave danger, then hauled out the genoa and cut the engines. We were sailing! Not much wind today. Only topped out at about 3.8 kts once we had the main up, but the silence was blissful.
After tooling around a bit we decided to head in to Honeymoon Bay to anchor for the night. In the process of pulling in the genoa I whacked Trent on the temple with the winch crank (does it matter if I told him to stay back???). Then I couldn't get the electric anchor windlass to run, but after cleaning the contacts it came to life and we anchored with ease. We settled in for our first real, full, hot dinner on the boat--the classic Italian delicacy, spaghetti with salad and bread. I used the pressure cooker for the first time and boy was all that steam entertaining! But the pasta was good, the kids were pretty good, and the box sangria was especially yummy. After dinner we all hung out in the cockpit and got to see 2 beautiful bald eagles take up their roost atop a tree on the shore. After a little snack of mini-cupcakes outside, the kids were ready to head to bed.

And now, it's silent! The final issue of the day? Anchor light is burned out! Making due with the deck light...