Labor Day

I had a lot to do on Labor Day, like a late afternoon volunteer haying party. So had to squeeze in the sailing quickly. Fawn, Sarah, and Carmella were up to it! Not quite as much wind as yesterday, but enough to get some good screams out of the ladies.

My life goal is to prove that sailing is thrilling, not relaxing. :-P
Well on my way to that goal. :-D

It actually went quite smoothly and Fawn and Carmella both got to drive part of the time.

Pictures:
one, two, three, four

Ken and Tiger

Today was my first chance in a very long time (upwards of two weeks!) to go sailing, on a perfect windy day. I didn't think I'd have any takers because there was a small time window, very short notice, and most people had other plans. This didn't break my heart any since I haven't sailed alone for any extended period for a very long time, and it is fun once in a while. BUT... finally I got down the 'K' section on my number list in my cell phone, and called my old co-worker friend, Ken (Kenichi). He and his son Tiger sailed with me way back in my second summer ever of sailing (7 years ago!) and he has told me since he wants to go again. He answered the phone, and when I said I was going sailing, he paused for about 5 seconds perhaps, and then said, "sure, sounds good, I'll be there in 15 minutes!". And he was.

Let this be a lesson to us all. Whatever you may be doing... if the opportunity to sail comes up, and there is a good wind, for pete's sake, drop whatever you may be doing and go sailing!!!!

We had a blast.

Forgot to take pictures. As with last time, it was one of those white-knuckle days where survival is more of a concern than posterity. Next time!

Elizabeth in Town!

My great old friend from GMS '03 came through town with her family on their way to St. Johnsbury for a weekend. Elizabeth was my main first mate that summer, as we worked (ha!) to fulfill the promise that had been made that there would be sailing that summer. Her shy younger sister Rachel came along today as well and learned to steer and change tacks with some coercion. It was a windy, soaking, crazy sailing morning! It was great to be near the back of the boat at the helm; they blocked most of the spray! :-D

Reefed main, plus full (full as it gets) jib and it was just right. Would have sailed with reefed main alone if single handing. It was a white-cap day. A real blast!

More GMS'ers!

What a summer GMS '03 was! One of my best friends that summer was Caitlin, a fairly new Christian from Penn State, still struggling with letting go of worldly ways, but really seeking God's way. A few years later, what a work of God, she came back as the women's co-director of the program this summer ('08).

Caitlin was busy, and I was really busy, so we only got together once while she was in town for the summer, but naturally it was for sailing, like the old times! Megan came too (the other co-director), who I don't really know, but know a little bit more now!

Funny story in the "I learned from that" category. I had just recently gotten internet access on my cell phone, so that I could check the weather radar from my boat on weather.com. I tried it out for the first time today because it was pretty cloudy. Logged on, hmm, all clear. That's funny, seems pretty cloudy. Well, good, no storms coming. Then it started drizzling a bit, but logged in again to check the radar, nothing. Hmm, I said. Well, finally we got hungry and pulled into the boathouse to grab lunch. Just a couple minutes after getting under cover, the sky let loose with a massive rain storm. So... I logged in again... NOTHING!!! Wait a minute....... then I noticed the date and time stamp on the map I was looking at... yesterday's radar map! oh!!!! So I spent a few minutes trying to figure out how to refresh, and when I did, the map was showing thunderstorms pretty solid for a 100 mile radius. Oops!

The cool part though, is that once I figured this out, I was able to predict when a 15 minute window of opportunity would come to get the boat back to the docks, and it worked!

Caitlin and Megan July 9 2008

Sailing with Lori and Paul!

It was a BEAUTIFUL evening sail, roughly 6:30 to 10, out to Juniper Island and back. Winds varied to very light to moderately heavy, but no need for motor the whole time. I also accessed the weather radar on weather.com for the first time by boat. Cool! The sky was looking slightly threatening at one point but the radar confirmed that there was nothing to fear, and there wasn't.

Visitors from India

My friend Atreyi has been visited by her parents from Calcutta, and of course wanted to take them sailing. I managed to squeeze them in today and what a blast! There were severe thunderstorm warnings so had to watch the weather.com radar to find a window of opportunity, found it, and went sailing in beautiful weather and 30 mph very gusty winds. I was hesitant about this at first, but reefed the main and stowed the jib, and it went just fine, a nice relaxing, but very fast, cruise!

The Old Boat Still Floats!

On May 25, I finally got Windfall out on the water again. There was no wind at all, but I hoisted the sails anyway to make sure all was well and to exercise the Mercury 3.3 for the first time since 2006. It started in 3 pulls! Stephanie L and Sarah S came along and did take some pictures that I'll get from them soon to post here. In the meantime, you can find them on facebook. If you're not on facebook, get on facebook!

On May 26 (Memorial Day) we had LOTS of wind. It was a fairly gloomy day but I went anyway. Shining, Sam, and Ana came along. I had my second-closest call for a capsize when my hat flew off and I tried to retrieve it. Should probably just let it go next time! :-)

On Wednesday, May 28, I went down to the waterfront and went on a spur-of-the-moment sail by myself. I decided to see how quickly I could get the boat in and out of the water. The verdict is: After driving to the boat access, 20 minutes later I was sailing away. Sailed around the perimeter of the breakwater, and then pulled into the dock again. 12 minutes after that, the boat was back on land and I was driving home. Not bad! 70 minutes total time from arrival by car to departure by car.