Shaked Down

Traditionally a shake down cruise is meant to be testing the system of the boat before a passage. Not supposed to be a break down cruise, for the ship or the crew. We have been lucky to not break too much, and have a good wind and good beating upwind, with 6-8 feet of waves on the nose. Nothing dangerous, but rough enough to be stressing the crew a bit and the boat too.

Windless, the engine worked perfectly for the 3 days.
Here, motorsailing.

We tested the Gale sail. It was getting windy.

The boat performed well when the sea got rough.
At night, it became quite impressive.

The windvane was my biggest fear. Some people find it tricky.
After 3 days, we were able to get it to work as needed when needed, on every point of sail.

In the action, The boom vang gave up. 2 layers of fiberglass, but no backing plates.

The main hatch at the bow was leaking ... tons.
Added to the to do list.

I was leaking too, after we failed our dinghy drop on the beach.
Ashamed for a double overhead surfer to get wet in one foot waves.

Anchorages were calm. The ground tackle worked as expected, but ended up way more heavy that I thought.
We might need a windlass eventually.

Waiting for the wind, we took the time for a bucolic walk on Santa Cruz Island.
Dry and desert. But there is some life in the bushes.

At anchor

Motoring on our way back.

Nice downwind sail on our way back,
it was sunny in SoCal,

I will pass on some nasty adventures (like the head that broke and the bucket usage that followed), but overall, it went pretty well. Except the drogue, we check most of the systems. The to-do-list is still quite long before going, but I feel confident we should be ready coming into November for the passage.
It was tiring a bit, but nobody got sea-sick and the boat - though a little wet - performed well.
Easy peasy.

Now, back on fixing things.