Halloween 'Cruise' with SSSS at Longbranch Marina

Terri and I left Saturday on her boat Gratitude headed to meet other South Sound Sailing Society sailors at the Longbranch Marina for the annual Halloween Party.  It was a gorgeous fall day with sunshine the whole day.  This also happen to mean no wind so we motored the whole way, about 2.5 hours.

After we got tucked into our spot at the marina, which was a bit tricky the way we were all rafted together, we had a snack and then began to socialize. The party was at 6pm.  It took us a bit longer to get into our costumes, course the constant laughing at each other caused it to take even longer.  I know there will be photos posted on the SSSS site sometime, but here is one I had taken of us.  I hope the others are better of me.  We were Sea Sprites, sort of like water fairies.

Today, after a great waffle and sausage breakfast hosted by SSSS, we headed back with drizzling rain and fog off in the distance.  We hoisted sails after motoring out of the bay and the wind had picked up.  We sailed for at least an hour maybe longer and were tacking back and forth in Dana Passage.
Then after a short starboard tack, Terri wanted to turn back out of the center of channel because the tide was still going out.  Right after we tacked from starboard to port, I looked up to see if the sails were trimmed properly and noticed the upper part of the mast was extremely bent.  Then we noticed that the port shroud and boot were no longer attached to the end of the spreader.  We tacked back fast to a starboard tack to get the pressure off the sails.  Then we furled in the jib quickly and dropped the main shortly thereafter.  Yikes, that could have really been a lot worse if the wind had been any stronger.

Here's one photo of the sea sprites:  (I hope the ones others took were better than this one.....)

 

This second might be a bit better; we picked a sailor walking by to pose with us.  Thanks Steve.

Koosah all decorated for Halloween.

Some photos below taken by Thera Black on the trip back from Longbranch, and before the shroud parted from the port spreader.

Eagle Island Race on Rushwind

Today was the first of the "island series" races.  It was a wet and windy day, fortunately it was relatively warm. Well, warm with long pants and foulies on that is.  We had a great time and a big thank you to Skipper Ken again for having me aboard.  Other crew was Erik, Rod, and Ruth, all new to Rushwind but everyone did great.  We didn't win but a good time was had by all.  The course is 26.5 nm

Ken and Rod

Erik

Ruth

Star sailing season officially over here

The Star sailing for 2011 is over; has been for some time actually for me.  I just go so busy after my July trip that I didn't get out much after that.  I did have a blast whenever I did, and learned alot.

Yesterday was boat bottom cleaning in preparation for the haul out, for me at least.  This is best done laying on the boat or from the dock with a long handle brush.  It has been a while since I have cleaned it, wonder how much growth there is.

Oops, I realized later in the day yesterday that I hadn't cleaned the keel or rudder, so I did that today before #31 got moved over to the staging area for haulout.  Today they hauled the boats out of the water at West Bay Marina so I was helping move boats, etc.  I think I heard there were 20 boats being taken out, so the photos below are only about half of them.  The crane that was used and with all the people helping, I think all the boats were out of the water by 1:30 (started at noon).  Norm and Bill kept the process moving quickly and everyone pitched in to get it done quickly.

Taken from Tugboat Annie's - I was having breakfast while they were waiting for the crane to get there.

Susan, Derek, John, and a couple others taking the mast off of 02-Jazz, John's boat

South Sound Women's Sailing Group (SSWSG) meet at Jarrell Cove State Park

Jeanne on Grace was the last to arrive.

There were five (5) SSWSG boats at the Jarrell Cove State Park on Saturday evening.  Mary, Terri, Deanna and I drove up to join them for their potluck at 6pm.
Clara Mcdougal - Captain Mary F. *** Liberte - Skipper Debra
Argos - Skipper Maryann  *** Swirl - Skipper Jo ***  Grace - Skipper Jeanne

When we got there, several of them were rigging their dinghies for a short sail in the cove.  There was next to no wind, but there were still able to get around some in the Mintos.

Jo rigging her Minto

Debra

Micki

Deanna, Micki, Debra

There was plenty of food and libations, although darkness made it difficult to see towards the end.  There were several head lamps around and other flashlights to help with the selection, but it was interesting.  One person in fact started to eat some soup and I heard her exclaim, "Oh, this is the hot apple cider not soup......"  Several people brought fire wood which was great for gathering around the campfire and sharing stories.

San Francisco weekend October 7th-9th - Tamara Lee Ann crew reunion

What a great weekend in San Francisco; it was sunny the entire time! On Saturday, October 8th, both the outbound and inbound Hawaii crew from the Tamara Lee Ann gathered on TLA for a great day on San Francisco bay. It was Fleet Week in San Francisco which meant the bay was busy with sailing and boating, and the star attraction was the air show with the Blue Angels, the Canadian Snow Birds, and other cool, fast, and loud aircraft. We didn't do any sailing but anchored out to watch the air show.  After a great day on the water we went to the St. Francis Yacht Club for dinner.  It just happened to be 3 months after the departure from Honolulu (July 8th), wow, time flies.  And Captain Doug presented all the crew members with Certifications of Appreciation, and Bravery (okay, I made up the bravery part).......

Then Sunday, Lorraine introduced me to Marty and we went sailing from Sausalito on her Islander 36 sailboat, Wind Catcher, with Julia and Robert also. We sailed some, but apparently it was one of the rare days on the bay when there wasn't really much wind. (Lorraine kept apologizing - LOL) We also saw Dennis on his boat Valhalla heading out the gate with some friends.

It was fun weekend hanging out with Lorraine and seeing everyone again.  Here's a few photos.
Cheers!
Barbara

Point Reyes Park - Gorgeous view of the Pacific

Umm, the Golden Gate Bridge

Watching the air show; Canadian Snowbirds

Lorraine and I (doofy smile)

Tammy relaxing

Motoring out to anchor to watch the air show

Jason, Doug, and Poul

Captain Doug and Tammy 

Just in case the Captain got thirsty

Sunday sailing

Look who we saw, Valhalla, Dennis's boat

Dennis and some guests

Windcatcher - Marty's boat - beautiful Islander 36