Hawaii or Bust - or is that San Francisco or Bust? July 2011 plans

If you are reading my blog, you probably already know about my plans for July. But maybe you don't....
Okay, so the plan in July is to pack as much as I can into two bags (including foul weather gear, yikes) and fly to Hawaii on July 4th.  Meet the skipper (Doug) and crew (Dennis) at the airport and head to the boat, a Celestial 48.  Meet Jason (other crew) at the boat.  Provision the boat with lots of good food and other necessary stuff and then find someplace to stow everything on the boat.  We plan to leave Hawaii on July 6th or shortly thereafter.........  Is it July yet?

The boat Tamara Lee Ann is scheduled to depart San Francisco on June 12th, oops did I say a departure was scheduled........  Anyway, I am flying down for a couple days on the 10th to see how the boat is and meet the outbound crew, Richard, Lorraine, and Poul.  I hope I get to see them actually sail off on Sunday..

To see their progress, I can "watch" them on this website
http://fms.ws/4_eQE/37.90015N/122.5533W
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Iickm7OXYf5ncqm2Cn4gf3o4sj0UQkqh

This will be the same way to "watch" my trip from Hawaii to San Francisco in July.  I'll keep you posted.

Wednesday night races on Vintage

June 2011 - the Wed. night summer races with South Sound Sailing Society started on June 1st and I have been recruited by Vintage, a Ranger 33 sailboat, owned by Myra (and Joe too!)  My crew mates are Linda, Joyce, Sandy, and Annie, and of course Myra.  I'm looking forward to getting to know Myra and her crew and enjoying some fun evening sailing races in Budd Bay.
We didn't do the first race last week so tonight will be our first week racing on Vintage.  I'll report back later how it goes. Let's just hope the weather cooperates, let there be sunshine and wind!  Well, at least wind then.

After the race:  There was enough wind to keep us moving but just barely sometimes.  I don't think we broke any records, and no one broken anything either.... which is good because we already have two injured crew members.  One fender overboard (oops that was me) successfully rescued (also me) on the way back in after the race..... All in all a great evening on the water.

Annie, Joyce, Sandy, and Myra

Stars and more Stars

Monday evening I went out with Steve and we had a great sail in the Star.  I was a little hesitant to go out because the wind was pretty good already but if it increased we might be overpowered.  I was asking the other skippers around what they thought, and yes, it was windy, would be okay if it didn't increase, if it did, just come back in.  And Steve just kept getting the boat ready and the next thing you know we were out there sailing!  I'm glad he didn't let me chicken out.  It was a bit gusty but was not too much. We didn't participate in the race and stayed south in the bay; boy, that ship at the Port sure looks BIG from up close. We sailed by Sunrisa at Martin Marina, but Mary was not on board. This time our departing went smoothly but the docking was a little tricky, more lessons learned......

Tuesday, last night, I was going to take a new sailor out, Alison.  She has only been sailing once before, a couple weeks ago on Mary C.'s boat, a Cascade 36; a big difference compared to the Star boats........... But, the wind was predicted to be stronger than last night and I decided it would be a lesson at the dock instead.  We spent a couple of hours at the dock going over the lines, hoisted the sails, etc. Several people asked if we really planned on going out because it was really 'gusty' out, including someone who just came in and said he saw a gust of 40. (that seemed a bit much but that is what he said).  So we made the right choice anyway and I think it was good for her to at least walk around the boat, pull some lines, etc. We are looking forward to actually getting out there and putting the rail in the water.  I don't think this gal will 'scare' easily............

BBQ in Brinnon

Jeanne Rhynne and her Grace at the Homeport Marina in Brinnon, Washington - what a beautiful day for a BBQ.  She even had live music.  It was a wonderful afternoon in the sunshine.  I can hardly wait until I can sail on Grace.  She is a wooden boat, a 47 foot San Juan Sharpie and was built by Jeanne's dad in Maine.  Yes, I said Maine.  He passed away last year and she had it shipped here to the Northwest.  Grace will be on display at the Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend in September 2011.

Life Sling Clinic - June 4th

GREAT class - Every year this is offered by the South Sound Sailing Society. I have been wanting to do this clinic for several years and for one reason or many, just haven't been able to.  I am really glad it worked out for this year.  There was some classroom instruction for a couple hours, then some "practice" at the dock, and then onto the water we went.  I was on Gratitude, Terri's Catalina 30, along with Judy, the instructor, Steve, the 'victim', and Marcy and her son Jacob, There was 3-4 other boats and 12-16(?) other participants also tossing and retrieving people from the water. The 'victims' were given survival suits for going into the water and with the warm sunshine, it sounded better and better to maybe have been a victim.  We each had a few challenges recovering him, but since the weather was so nice, our 'victim' sometimes seemed disappointed when we 'bothered' him and hoisted him aboard.  He said he was so relaxed floating out there in the warm sunshine, he was almost asleep...........   It was 75+ degrees and bright sunshine the entire afternoon. We had some pretty decent wind to start with but it decreased as the afternoon progressed making it tougher and tougher to sail back to the victim.   ***** Have lifesling, will rescue.  *****
Thanks for the photo Terri!  Steve, our victim in the orange "gumby" suit is getting ready to slip into the water (he really should be more careful, this was the 2nd time already today), me at the helm, and Judy, our instructor for the afternoon.

Wild Wet Sailing

What a ride!  This evening I crewed for John in Jazz, a Star boat, in the Wednesday night summer PHRF racing. (Vintage wasn't going out after all.)  We had a few challenges leaving the marina when a fellow sailor who had been left behind wanted a ride out to his boat. The winds were breezy (10-15 w/gusts) and we quickly caught up with the boat to transfer him.  Although we thought about keeping him because we might need the extra weight with the winds being as strong as they were.
Anyway, we were in for a wild, wet ride of a race, and it didn't rain!  We had the rail in the water most of the time upwind, and I was standing on the leeward coaming, (don't quite have the hang of using the hiking straps yet.) We did two laps of the race course and then got the gun.  The boats that finished after us owed us time, so we think we won.  Course, the official results will be posted later/tomorrow, etc.
The boat had a few inches of water inside but a pump and sponge quickly took care of that.  I had my foul weather gear on, except maybe I should have put my boots on after all...........

Thanks for a great race John!

Another Star sailing

So Tuesday evening I took a newbie, Steve, out sailing on a Star but we didn't participate in the races.  (I am still not ready to be in close quarters with other star sailors.........) We waited til all the racers left and then made our exit. It was definitely tricky because the wind tried blowing us back into the dock, well, not just tried, but did. So we used the dock lines to maneuver our way out and from then on it was a very pleasant sail with no rain.. yeay.  The winds were light which was good for learning and trying things.  Steve did a great job at noticing things and asking questions (oops, I'd forgotten things...), driving some, putting the pole up, and generally getting comfortable sailing the Star.  We made up for the messy departure with a smooth sail back into the marina, the main dropped nicely and we slid slowly to the dock.  All in all a great evening on the water.  Thanks Steve.