Quite Tiny Wearing Green Trousers

This past Sunday was one of the best sailing days I've ever had. It was a glorious day once we emerged from the fog, the wind was right at that perfect line where 1 more knot would be approaching what I call windy but at 18-20 knots the boat handles beautifully. I kind of sort of vowed not to write boring "we did this then we did that" posts but what the hell, you people are hooked now you'll read anything. I think I proved that when my hits kept coming through the whole "changing a lot of diapers" phase of this blog.

Kathy and I had a new crew member on Sunday, someone that I met off of the SF Sailing crew list. When she called to say she was almost at the gate, she described herself as "quite tiny wearing green trousers". Brilliant! That has to be one of the best most perfectest descriptions of all time. I could picture her exactly, sort of like a female version of a leprechaun. Of course, she looked nothing like what I pictured but any turn of phrase that evokes such imagery deserves a paragraph in this blog.

After getting over the intense fear provoked by The Mantid, we rigged the boat and headed out. The idea during the summer is to take one tack to get to Angel Island and really enjoy keeping the boat in that closehauled groove. We didn't make it in one tack (needing 5 I think), but we got 98% of the way on one really long port beat.

The wind was quite manageable, probably 15 knots with higher gusts. When one of those gusts hit, we buried the rail. I, of course, hooted and hollered. Nina, on the other hand, asked "do we want that?" Reflecting for a moment, I was forced to admit that we really don't want it but it sure is fun. She was also quite concerned that I left some ports open, not buying that the cross-breeze airing out the cabin is more important than the risk of sinking the boat. She did indeed prove to be a valuable crew member.

Here is where I point out that we were consistently hitting 6 knots upwind in what is really not that big of a breeze. I think I can now officially call Lady Bug a 6 knot sh!tbox.

Once we got to the lee of Angel Island, we hove-to for some lunch and enjoyed what turned into a very nice day. And we saw Sea Lions and Seals. Tons of them...there must have been an all you can eat seafood buffet happening in the Bay.


While still in the lee, I reefed the main anticipating the afternoon's increased winds. Right as we were about to take off on our Broad Reach Adventure Home (BRAH), I got a call from Heidi that she really needed me home soon. These calls, by law, can only happen when you're as far as possible from Land. Luckily, Mother Nature had my back. 20 knots of wind and what must have been a favorable current got us home and in the slip in slightly less than 45 minutes. Hmmm, off the top of my head that's almost 7 knots SOG. Lady Bug Rocks.

The only way to end this post is to quote the great Brad Nowell, "summertime and the living's easy".