The first sail without engine

was not long. Saturday 16 April, Twister sailed from Elsesro Marina near the Bergen city center to Ebbesvik on Lille Sotra island (about 10 miles) with LT at the helm and Henriette as first mate and all-around fender-offer. The marina is being demolished to make room for luxury condos, so the boat gypsies who had made it their home are scattered to the four winds.  The sail to Ebbesvik was very pleasant though chilly. We were becalmed for a short while under the Askøy Bridge (where the police responded to aspiring jumpers about 60 times last year). Aside from that I could hardly have asked for better conditions. Approaching Ebbesvik, I found the public concrete dock occupied. The private wooden dock nearby was empty.  After  one reconnaisance pass we charged into the narrow cove, came about and pointed the bow right at the dock as Twister lost her forward momentum. I stepped off with a dock line in hand very pleased with myself. The motorboat occuping the public dock kindly offered to move allowing me more practice docking under sail. As we neared the concrete wharf  I furled the jib and tried out the new skulling oar which turned out to be worse than useless. It honestly seemed I managed to make the boat go backwards. Skulling with the rudder, the tried and true method with Twister, was sufficient to maneuver her alongside. So far I'm feeling good about engineless sailing. 

Since Saturday I have been continuing the interior redecoration started when I removed the engine and fuel tank in October. The port side freshwater tank was removed using a drill, hand saw, crow bar, and liberal amounts of elbow grease. I also pulled out the old electrical panel and wiring (in retrospect I wish I had looked a little more carefully at how things were connected before I started yanking things out). The rough plan is to move the galley and chart table aft making room for two traditional settees (boatspeak for couch) in the middle of the cabin. The pilot berth will also be moved aft into the space formerly occupied by the fuel tank (I will not miss the smell of diesel).