Clean Slate

It's amazing how one day, one glorious incredible sail, can make up for a miserable winter. Despite checking a progressively worse weather forecast hourly for the last 5 days, I had determined that I was sailing today, weather be damned. Even if it meant my family huddled down below, scared of the maniacal cackling pirate screaming "fly the cloth" at an invisible crew. It didn't come to that, but it's a hell of a visual.

A bit of deja vu as we cleared the breakwater (and this time raised the sails), this little blonde kid appears out of nowhere and demands the helm. A precedent had been set and we did have a nice close reach directly to Angel Island, so I gave up the tiller and started plotting my blog entry. It's a little known fact, disguised by clever photography, that last time we were motoring; this time the kid sailed.


I should have gotten a picture of the wake...straight as an arrow. I even had to remind her that even though we were aiming for "C" we didn't want to hit it (she was that close to her target). This isn't the best picture of her, but notice the concentration. It's odd but both my Dad and I have that same Montgomery Burns overbite look when steering....sometimes I wish she would have picked her genes more wisely.


I am very proud of her and that's going to be a recurring theme of any Camille-sailed-the-boat-today post, but mostly I am just happy as hell we sailed. It's like the winter is now finally over. Despite the sails having rips and dirt and rust stains, the boat sailed so nicely today, the 10 knot winds are right in her sweet spot. I'm still not happy with the cockpit's hardware layout but notice (behind the beautiful girls who are the subject of this photo) that the boat is singlehandlable.


All in all, an incredible day. Sailed for about two hours, got a much better feel for the boat, decided to bring the fenders onboard this time, and happily realized at the dock that those old ragamuffin sails are being retired Tuesday. It's Springtime, folks.