After almost 3500 miles this season, it’s time for a Mischief performance report. Remember, this boat had been largely abandoned at her dock for close to 10 years. She was a mess of mold and rot, ant colonies above deck and oyster reefs below. We did a few very rudimentary repairs to get her in stable condition back in 2022, then largely left her alone while we concentrated on getting Calypso ready for her Caribbean winter.

As of June of 2023, the focus was getting Mischief ready to go cruising.

Major projects:

• Repair mast/mast step

• Replace chainplates

• Replace all standing rigging 

• Stabilize exterior wood (included completely replacing rudder cheeks)

• Replace batteries

• Overhaul engine

• Replace prop and shaft

• Rebuild all 3 hatches

• Install solar panels/controller

November 7, 2023 she went into the water. Goal? Bahamas.

Goal? Achieved with flying colors.

Every system worked. The engine, the electrical. Plumbing. Windlass. Solar. The rig. The dinghy. Everything. It just worked. Way exceeded our expectations all around. What a boat.

Once we got to the Bahamas (and before we started the ICW-portion of the return trip), we largely sailed EVERYWHERE. Pick up the hook under sail, drop the hook under sail, sail all times in between. Yes, we tended to choose destination/departure day based on wind forecast, so the amount of time spent beating was minimized. Even on the days where we were heading into the wind, though, we sailed.

If pressed, we might say that Mischief sails a bit better than Calypso. She seems to pick up speed with ease and sail a tad faster. It might be because we spend more time tweaking the sails, or that we’re faster to use the staysail since it’s on a furler. It might be that Mischief is lighter in terms of cargo or even possibly hull construction. Even if it’s not true that she’s a better sailing machine, what IS true is that she has performed way beyond our wildest hopes. 

We left Oak Harbor thinking we’d at most do single overnights, not wanting to press a newly-fixed boat. By the time we got to Carolina Beach, 2 weeks later, we were eyeballing a 3 day, 2 night offshore run from Cape Fear to Jacksonville. Clearly we were feeling confident in the boat.

Yes, we left with incomplete projects on the docket. The biggest of these was the bulwark stanchion post replacement. I’m happy to report that is now in the rear view mirror; Jeremy installed the last of them while we sat in Pipe Creek on January 23. He finished sanding and coating them with epoxy (the next step before we get ready to prime) while we were at the dock in Beaufort, SC on March 18.

The result of that work? A leak-proof boat. A massive, massive upgrade from how we found her.

Yep. She’s a keeper.

*Many of these shots were taken either by friends or by random people who snapped shots while we sailed past them. Apparently Mischief is a photo-worthy subject.