"Lonnie pushed out of The Nest!"

Well we purchased our sailboat a Columbia 26 Mk II on the 5th of May 2009. It took us until this weekend to actually motor out of the slip and sail it. We were very cautious. We could have purchased a flat screen TV or upgraded any number of electronics or other desired or "needed" home improvements but ... this is something we have both dreamed about since before we met 16 years ago. Lonnie lives at the end of the dock 2 slips away from us. We met him the first night that we looked at the boat, and the 2nd time, and the 3rd time! The 3rd look at the boat was the best because we were over the giddiness and looking at common sense items and making our list of questions. We walked to the end of the dock and "knocked on his door." He kindly invited us aboard his beautiful Matthews power boat. He spoke to us for over an hour answering every question or concern we had. The next time we saw Lonnie we were the new owners! We picked the of name of the boat several months ago before we even knew which boat we would purchase. Her name is Firefly. Saturday afternoon May 23rd we took our friend Bill to see Firefly for the first time and Lonnie and our other Marina neighbor Frank were both there. Both of them had offered help in previous conversations, but now we really needed it. We had taken our boaters safety course many years ago and done reading to refresh and talked all of the safety issues to death! It was time to take her out for our first sail. So we spoke to Lonnie and Frank. Lonnie actually came aboard and helped us get the sails completely rigged up. We have sailed before but only on a 16' Hobie Cat that we owned for one season. We were very nervous and really wanted Lonnie to actually come a long. Needless to say Lonnie did not come a long. He and Frank basically shoved us out of the slip. We used the motor to get out of the marina then raised the sails. Oh my gosh, how exhilarating! So beautiful so many things you see from the water that you never see from land. We even had a minor run aground incident, only soft sand thank goodness! We quickly got out of the sand and returned to have some beautiful wind in our sails for about an hour. All the while keeping our eye on the markers that went back to marina. We didn't want to get too far away. We made our way back just fine and Lonnie and Frank were there immediately to throw us the lines and help us get tied back up in the slip. I can't wait to sail more and learn more and take weekend trips and eventually whole vacations up the coast. It is more awesome than I dreamed of. Thank you Lonnie and Frank for being great and helpful neighbors! I will never forget our first sail.