Wisconsin – no boats

I’m in Wisconsin on business (for most of the next month or so) and I miss my boat.  I wonder if she misses me.  Sigh.

On Friday, I stopped off to see the Indian Summer, and noticed that some of the repair work in the cabin panelling is bubbling and turning green.  I don’t think its below a leak – I think the leak was in the past and has been all stopped up, but now the corner which was replaced with looks like fiberglass is falling apart.  I’m really hoping it isn’t a leak, cause I have been over the outside of that corner repeatedly and cannot find a single spot which could be leaking.  I’m stumped.

So, I’m going to go with the assumption that its not a leak, just needs some work.  Problem is, I have no idea what type of work or where to begin.  I’ve looked at a variety of websites, all the books I have, and talked to my dad.  He had no suggestions.  So, next I’ll talk to my brother.  It may end up involving clandestine conversation with my sister-in-law to trick him into coming for a visit with the ulterior motive to make him diagnose what is wrong with boat.  In lieu of trying to manipulate my brother, an in the absence of a better idea, I’ll probably try to sand down the bad regions, check what is underneath, and if I don’t find anything, replace with fake wood.

Anyone have any better ideas?

Easter Dinner

Now that Anna has reminded me, dinner post-sail was phenomenal.  Or Fi-nomenal.  Shout out to Fish!  Yay Fish, great restaurant.  We all shared two orders of the whole grilled sea bass with asparagus risotto.  MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm.    Plus, Amy and Tony ordered some steamed pea greens and I had some clam chowda.  Best chowda I’ve had on the west coast.

Of course, I was so hungry by that point, I could have eaten a raw tomato.   I think at one point I growled at Anna as she dug into the platter we were sharing.  (Sorry Anna!)

In the future, I’ll try to bring more supplies aboard.   See, we had planned to fire up my grill for the first time, just by the time we got back, it was really late, really windy, really cold, and body parts were missing due to cannibalism.  So we decided it would be faster and warmer to go out to dinner.  And Fish has a stove running in the dining room. 

Spring sailing

A couple of great weekends of sailing, breaking in (and in the first case, breaking) the new topping lift (since repaired).

I’ve got a few crew members now who have come along often enough or (perhaps more to the point) have the interest to take the tiller themselves and be in charge of the helm for a while.  So the first week, with the Ninja at the helm, I got to hang out on the bow and commune with my boat for the first time in a long while.  Easter Sunday, with Anna B at the helm, I even took a quick nap!

Things got a little rough during the Easter Sunday sail.  I had Amy and Tony along for their second ever sail, and Anna for her first sail of 2007.  The day started out with decent wind, but an admittedly poor decision on my part.  I had planned to use the tides and relatively calm wind to go out the gate a bit, coming back on the incoming tide.  However, there was a bit of fear among the crew, so I said we could go towards San Pablo instead, which meant fighting the tide both coming and going, and fighting the wind coming back.

Got a great opportunity to do some wing-on-wing.  (pretty picture!) 

Everything was smooth for the first 5 hours or so, although coming back was taking a long time.   However, my crew was getting cold, tired and hungry, so I decided to crank up the motor rather than beat up all the way back (plus, the wind was pretty low between Angel Island and Tiburon).  OK, got the motor going and the sails down, although the chop should have clued me in.  We rounded Belvedere and straight into pretty big wind.

Wound up with most of the crew staying below for the remainder of the journey.

For the first time since moving the boat North I had a little trouble docking.  Coming up between the docks straight into the wind, I should have cut the turn a little tighter than I normally do.  Luckily, Anna was ready with the lines and a fellow walking by helped out.

As we docked, he said, “You guys are really brave to have gone out today!”

Brave, fool-hearty, what’s the difference?

 

The prior week, I had Rebecca, Janet and Jason.  Jason brought along a major camera – I fully expect to see a photo spread someday.  The Indian Summer likes being a pinup girl.  Janet did not get a third chance to save the day, so no plaque yet, but I’m sure she’ll come sailing again.  There’s always another chance to do a boat-save.