The Mast Comes Down | Sailing Soulianis - Ep. 23

What lies between us and saltwater sailing? 1300 miles of rivers! Before we can get underway, we need to unstep our mast. For this leg of our journey south, we turning our sailboat into a motorboat. There’s a fixed 19’ 1” bridge in Chicago that forces sailboats to ditch their sticks. Besides that, rivers don’t offer the best sailing opportunities. ;) Some sailors opt to carry their masts on deck, others, like us, decide to ship it via truck. In this episode, we pull into Skyway Yacht Works at the mouth of the Calumet River to have our mast unstepped and pack it for shipping. Our mast is keel-stepped, so while our boat is only 37', our mast is 52'. Besides the massive inconvenience of having the mast and rigging on deck making it difficult to see and move around, we decided we didn't want to worry about jousting something or someone while maneuvering in tight quarters. We would of had 15' hanging off the bow/stern of our boat, and that just felt unsafe all around. And in the end, all variables considered, it ended up costing us only a handful of boat bucks more to ship it vs. putting it on deck. Even though we’re packing away our sails for now, we’re already thinking about a new headsail for sailing in the trade winds. Our 155% genoa is old, stretched out and much too big for where we’re headed next: the Gulf of Mexico, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean. After Kirk spent hours researching the type of sail we wanted (115% Dacron tri-radial), we contacted over a dozen sail lofts for quotes. We received the best information from Mack Sails and Precision Sails. In the end, we ordered our new headsail from Precision Sails, as they were the most responsive, their quote form the most detailed, and their price the cheapest. Hard to beat. Interested in a new sail? Precision Sails is having a Black Friday Sale: https://www.precisionsailloft.com/lpd Hope you enjoy! Lauren & Kirk P.S. If you’d like more Sailing Soulianis content or would like to support our video production, consider becoming a patron here: https://www.patreon.com/sailingsoulianis — Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sailingsoulianis Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sailingsoulianis/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sailingsoulianis/ Website: https://sailingsoulianis.com — We’re looking for music! If you or someone you know makes good tunes, give us a shout at hello@sailingsoulianis.com. — Music: Odesza - Say My Name (Mulle Remix) - Mulle https://soundcloud.com/mulleofficial Electric Circus - Common Jack http://www.commonjackmusic.com https://open.spotify.com/artist/6yZHZrHjYanoG5FZYfxOn2 Take it Easy - Foxy Basey https://jinglepunks.com Every Vote Counts - Rochelle Rochelle https://jinglepunks.com Crossed Up - Rochelle Rochelle https://jinglepunks.com I Still Think of You - Common Jack http://www.commonjackmusic.com https://open.spotify.com/artist/6yZHZrHjYanoG5FZYfxOn2 Adventures - A Himitsu https://youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE — Our camera gear: Canon 80D - http://amzn.to/2D6T6kO DJI Mavic Pro 2- https://amzn.to/2PDXZLD RODE VideoMic GO - http://amzn.to/2FEfOSZ GoPro Hero 6 Black - https://amzn.to/2G3ZCtk FeiyuTech G6 - https://amzn.to/2NPEwUP Blue Yeti - https://amzn.to/2QalAAB —