WOW - Weekend on the Water - Memorial Day Weekend with the SSSS cruisers

We didn't get much sailing in, but I joined Terri on her boat with she and her son, Trevor.  We left on Friday afternoon and headed to the Penrose Point State Park. We rafted up with Glen and Irene on Sassy for two nights, and then had the mooring ball to ourselves last night.  There were maybe 12-15 (??) boats for the SSSS Memorial Day weekend cruise. There was a great potluck with lotsa pasta dishes, and plenty of other good food too.  It had been a pretty sunny day Saturday, but it was cooling off fast and the wind was picking up for the evening.  Without a dinghy we were a bit 'handicapped' and if anyone has a dinghy for sale, you might contact Terri..... but thanks to Sassy and others, we were able to get off the boat some.  I actually enjoy just relaxing on the boat, reading, etc., but it's not for everyone; can anyone say 'teenager on board'.....?
We had a great time, lots of laughs, and I got back in plenty of time Monday to shower up and get ready to for a sailing practice on Vintage this afternoon.  THANKS for a great weekend Terri.

Tuesday Evening 'Casual' Sails start

Two boats went out for a lovely evening sail (although we could have used a little more wind) on Mary Campbell's boat, Sonrisa II
- Jane, Mary, Alison, Terri, LindaRose, and me

 - Mary Fitzgerald - Clara McDougal (sp?) - with Maria, Jeanne, Emily, and Tamara

Stars Race Committee Boat

Instead of going sailing, what's the next best thing?  Watching others sail in a race sounds good to me.  I haven't been in a Stars race, so I thought I'd see what it looks like from the committee boat.  And since I didn't have crew lined up for the Monday night race, it especially sounded like a good idea to at least get out on the water.

So to get a different perspective on the races, I joined John and Susan for the race committee for the Stars races a couple days ago, Monday, the 23rd.  It was challenging for John to set the course to start with because the winds kept shifting, often a problem here in Budd Bay.  But he finally set one and we proceeded to have 4 races.  The second one we had a little confusion because we intended a general recall when so many boats were over early, but we put up the wrong flag, oops...... So after everyone came back, we got on with three more races, the last one being a race to the docks.  There were 16 boats out.  Darn, I should have taken some photos......

Women's Boating Seminar in Olympia - SUCCESS

May 21st was the second WBS by South Sound Sailing Society and Olympia Yacht Club. There were over 60 registered women.  I'm sure there will be more posted on the SSSS website soon, but here are just a few photos before my camera batteries died.

Another Star Sailing today

Today was another 'practice' day for me with sailing the Star #31. Jim (the owner of the boat) was kind enough to take me out again for a couple hours, and answer questions for me about the idiosyncrasies of Stars.  We had some good wind to start with and then it lightened up a bit.  It was nice and warm with plenty of sunshine too!  He was also showing me how to sail the boat with out using the tiller.  We tied it off and used only the sails to steer the boat. That makes 3 times in the last week, sailing on a Star.  I feel like I'm ready to take others out on the boat now, and am really looking forward to it.  This is going to be a great sailing season!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, what a fun sailboat you are!

This evening, Susan and I went for a sail on her Star named Mako.  We had a wonderful time with light winds maybe 5-7 knots, perfect for getting used to sailing a Star.  There was sunshine and wind, great way to spend a Wednesday evening.  A few more practices and we'll be ready for the Barbara Stuart Memorial Regatta in late June................

Spring Regatta on a Star

I sailed on Jazz, a Star 22, with John for the SSSS Spring Regatta.  It was a pretty slow day, looking for wind, etc., but when we did get some breezes, we were gliding through smooth water.  It was a light turnout and there were less boats in the 2nd race than the first. We were a little unsure whether the committee was going to race again or not, some boats went back in to dock.  But we hung around and yes, there was another race.  It was a very enjoyable day on the water, some sun, no rain, but a little more wind would have been nice.
The most excitement was on the way back to the dock, sailing into West Bay Marina, the call came to take the main down, but yikes, I couldn't get it down. It was jammed at the masthead.  So he depowered the main and we sailed into the dock.  John prepared the mast to be removed, and after help came, he and Norm got the mast out of the boat and down on the dock.  We got the main off the mast and rolled it up, that's about the time it started to rain.
We were racing in the PHRF class, only one other star out.  I'm not sure how we did because the results haven't been posted yet.  My first race in a Star, thanks John.