It's an Exciting World

Today I went sailing with Jeremy B, Adam, Tina, Amit, Brian, Candice, and Steph.  We went to pick up Brian and Candice and drove over the mountains with them.  We got to the harbor and checked out the boat.  It was hard to get the sail out, but we managed once the owner showed up and gave us tips on how to work it.  The owner of the ship is a really nice guy in his 70’s.  I hope he liked us, as we would like to take his ship out a lot more.

As we were preparing the ship an otter showed up in the bay hanging out around the fishing vessels.  Probably picking up the scraps from the morning catch.  Once we got out on the water the wind was really nice and steady.  The whole time we were able to keep a speed of between 3 and 5 knots.  The surge was a little big and the weather was a little cold and overcast, but all in all I had a great time sailing.  Brian, Candice, Tina, Amit, and Jeremy were getting seasick, with Amit taking the worst of it.

While we were under way we had a good bit of guac and chips, with some really nice cider.  Once we got back into the harbor we had lunch of salami, bread, cheese, and mustard that Adam brought.  The mustard and salami were really good.  We then went up to Java Junction and had some hot drinks to shake off the cold from the ocean.  I realized that we were late to get to Nima’s recital when I noticed that it was in the East Bay.  I feel really bad about missing it since it was a piece he composed and the first time he was performing with his Cello.  I’ll have to find a way to make it up to him.  The traffic to get over 17 was the worst I’ve ever seen it.  It went on and on, to the point that we were in stop and go traffic before we even got over the summit.  Brian and Candice were feeling the drowsy effects of the Dramamine, so they passed out in the back seat.  I was feeling pretty sleepy myself, but the traffic wasn’t letting me relax for a second.  We made it back to Brian and Candice’s place just fine.

Today we took Cat 35 out for our first sailing outing on the big boats without an instructor and it went really well.  We only stayed on the water for about 4 hours, but it was plenty for us.  Nima and Caryn weren’t feeling too good, so 4 hours was about the limit.  The winds were really strange, as there was about 2 miles of no wind before getting into the regular wind stream.  It took us a long time to get out into the wind, and we were really far off the coast.  I am glad we got some good wind after all, as it would have been a disappointing sailing outing without it.  Julian was a lot of help around the boat as he had done a good bit of sailing with Lasers, so he knew the basics.  Bri didn’t seem to be enjoying herself all that much, and was the only one not to take a turn at the wheel.  Since we had to go 2 miles offshore to get wind, the waves were pretty big compared to what we had normally been dealing with.  It made the adventure that much better, but also made the passengers that much sicker.  When we were moving it wasn’t too bad for them from the sounds of it, but when we were hove to they were feeling really bad, especially Nima.  We had lunch out on the water after we had hove to, and it was really tasty.  Julian and Bri brought a tasty spinach and artichoke dip, along with some margarita.  As we were heading in the racing had move to only a couple hundred yards from the mouth of the harbor, and we got a little in their way.  They were far to close to shore, but there wasn’t any wind anywhere else within a few miles.