Are all Sailors this Friendly?

[Liunatic]

Hello all --

So as I posted in the Meet and Greet thread, my husband and I bought an old Catalina 27 to put our book-learned knowledge to use. We took possesion of the "new" boat this past week and Sunday was our first available day to get on the boat (she is on a mooring). So we rowed out and did a lot of cleaning, collected trash to take off (flares that expired in 1996!) started the Atomic 4 engine, but didn't sail. We plan on sailing her (our maiden voyage!) next weekend.

The guy who sold us the boat told us we would have no shortage of people who would want to sail with us once we get out there, and it seems he was right.

So we row back to shore, and the parking area is at the end of a rather active bike path, which borders the mooring field where the boat is. As we land the dingy there is a gentleman there (maybe 60ish) on a bike and asks us if we bought the boat, as he knew it was for sale. We say yes. He used to own and sail a Catalina 25 and he briefly considered buying this one. After we tell him we're total newbs, and plan on taking our first sail next weekend he says, If you want someone to come along, my wife and I would love to join you and give you a hand.

This whole conversation took about 5 minutes. He rode away, and then shortly after rode back with his wife and introduced her. They seem nice enough, and we'd love to have somebody with experience with us the first time we take the boat out (we really don't know anybody else who sails). My husband and he exchanged phone numbers and we told him depending on the weather, we'll most likely be around Sunday morning.

So, how crazy are we to take total strangers onto the boat to help abate our own fear of going alone on our first sail?