Monday, December 21, 2009
Sailing Reflections of 2009
What a great year of sailing we had. Lots of friends joined us on the boat and all were blown away at how beautiful it is on our wonderful bay. One day in October, I took out an old friend and her boyfriend. The winds were 12-14 as we set sail for Angel Island. I sent her and her beau to the bow for the reach to the island. With a glass of champagne in hand, they could not get over how lovely it was and the amazing scenery. It was a great day indeed. That's the thing about getting friends out for a sail, it makes you appreciate sailing your home waters because they get so excited about how cool this sport is. I look forward to getting more folks out there next year. This last year, I probably took close to 80 folks out on the bay. Like I say, it was a great year.
More highlights:
Night sails - I went out at least a dozen times and these were some of the best. My last night sail was amazing in that the wind was heavy and the waves were huge. Loved it and so did the boat
Sailing to the Giants games and then sailing back late at night about 1.5 hours to our slip
Bocce on Angel Island
Swimming in Paradise Cove
Raft Up in Clipper Cove with 4 other Newports
Kaboom Fireworks Show
Fleetweek Air Show
Napa sail with Tex and biking to local wineries in the Carneros area
Birthday sail with my wife, and our best friends Frank and Leslie
The sails from mid October to December have been amazing!
Sailing the creek in Redwood City with Arnie and friends
One of my favorite sailing jokes is to sail close to another boat and say "Excuse me, do you have any Gray Poupon?". Try it, it always gets a laugh. Except for that one guy who went down below to look and shrugged his shoulders saying no he did not have any. Now that was funny. Hope you had a good one out there too. Happy New Year!!
We always used to have Gray Poupon on board as a luxury treat on the sandwiches. Until one day...
ReplyDeleteWe were racing the Around Tjörn Race (known for tight passages http://www.blur.se/2009/08/16/tjorn-runt-demolishon-derby/). 10-12 knots of wind and great racing.
My navigator went below to prepare sandwiches, but after a while we tried to get his attention to go close to an underwater rock. No one answered, and when we got a bit excited I heard his reply "take it easy guys, I have dijon mustard all over the floor here"...
Next thing I hear the guys on the rail "no worries, we just passed it... it was more than a meter away".
We don't have Gray Poupon on board after this incident...
http://www.blur.se