Orion's Wake

Well, it happened, we're proud parents of our very own sailboat. Meet Orion's Wake; she's a Catalina 22, and you can check out her stats here.

We've been kicking tires on sailboats for months and up until this point they have either cost a small fortune, were too big to fit into the driveway, or the only thing holding them together was mold and rust. Thanks to the alignment of some very small planets and Craigslist, we found a sailboat that had seen very little use, was ready to sail and didn't break the bank.

We were lucky. Quite often when boats and their new owners find each other, the two are separated by hundreds, if not thousands, of miles. Our's was only an hour's drive away. We brought her home, cleaned her up a bit, and found a cozy slip on the lake to keep her in.

Orion's Wake all tucked into her slip.

Hatches all open and ready for fun!

Not wanting to waste a minute of summer fun, we've already had her out sailing half a dozen times, slept overnight on her twice and watched fireworks while under sail on the 4th. While the cabin doesn't have a little sink or a small toilet, it does have a four person dining table, a long seat along one side of the boat and a v-berth bed that is long enough to allow me to not sleep in the fetal position all night. In grand total, she can sleep about six kids or roughly four adults and if you want the best view of the stars as you fall asleep, there is room in the cockpit to sleep two more people.

Adrienne soaking up the morning sun after spending the night on Orion's Wake.

Pirates aboard!

While the younger kids have found their place on the board as our token pirates, the older kids are content to just hang out and enjoy the ride. Almost all the kids have had their hand at steering and the more adventurous ones like to hang out up on the forward deck of the boat. Sometimes I even catch them standing on the very very front of the boat leaning against the bow pulpit channeling the Titanic movie, not the sinking part. Their other favorite trick is to lean over the side of the boat with their whole body trying to touch the water-- that's when I think, "How does that man overboard procedure go again?".

Surely more adventures will follow as we get to know Orion's Wake.

~J~