What a weekend!!! Wow! I had a great cruise. Angie could not go this weekend so I invited a couple server administrators from work who've never sailed before. Jess and Aaron. Jess brought his wife, Monica and we had a great time!
The weekend started Friday with me dragging Galactica to work! I left straight from work Friday evening arriving at the ramp parking lot with an hour of daylight left. I rigged her and launched as twilight was settling.
By the time I had the Genoa unfurled, it was dark and a nearly full moon was in the sky!
There were decent 7 knot winds so I sailed out to the main channel and played around tacking until it was getting late. I sailed up to the marina where the winds died.
Coming in that late, I tied up at the end of the F dock by the Tartan T37, Higher Porpoise. I then visited with Tom and Sandy aboard Higher Porpoise until it was late absorbing nautical knowledge!
Saturday morning, I piddled around on Galactica, went to the marina for breakfast coffee and watch Tom wash his boat. Jess, Monica and Aaron arrived mid morning so I gave a brief tour, explained a few things to look for (Jess met the boom later during a jibe... ) and we cast off.
Winds were to be 9-11 knots gusting to 15 all day.
We tacked our way up the main channel and into the Spalding bay for lunch.
Here is Jess.
And Aaron...
And Monica...
I wanted to beach Galactica while we BBQ'd and it'd give Monica the ability to freshen up at the flushing facilities.
HOT SAND!!!!!!!
We got out, ignoring the warning sign and walked up the extremely hot sand in our bare feet. Coming down, I chose to go around following the grass to the shoreline and didn't have anymore hot-feet episodes. Jess and Aaron did a hilarious hot-foot dance all the way back to the boat.
I had chicken fahitas mixed with fresh veggies from our garden but Monica and Jess brought steaks to share!!! We grilled them and feasted!
Afterwards we cruised to Indian Creek anchorage and began a wing on wing run back to Blackjack.
Aaron had to get to a wedding so we furled the sails, powered up the Etec to WOT, emptied the ballast tank and rocketed back to the marina.
After dropping them off, I headed back out. The MTLSA club was going to raft up and Angie gave me permission to stay out another night! While I was at the marina, the weather changed. 25+ knot winds were frantically blowing out of the west!
I didn't know the winds were that fast until I was talking with other sailors who had wind guages on their boats. I was following Wild Goose out but heard him on the radio that he was returning.
I continued under Genoa alone. It was awesome! The heal angle was 25 to 35 degrees. I kept reducing sail every third or fourth tack until I had the lean ranging from 15 to 20 degrees at which time Galactica Soared! She's never sailed so fast!
After the winds died down to 15-20 knots, I was able to take pictures and vidoes again! What a sail! I followed Higher Porpoise to a semi protected anchorage and beat my way all the way up the cove! Here are some pictures of Higher Porpoise after the winds eased and at anchor lowering the plank for Stormy the dog while I beat close hulled up to them:
She's a pretty boat:
Stormy walking the blank...to relief:
After rafted, I boarded Tom and Sandy's Tartan and enjoyed margaritas until other sailboats arrived! Stormy sat with me as I enjoyed mine:
Here is stormy watching Galactica and DragonFly:
I cooked up my fahitas and fresh corn...
...while the full moon rose over Galactica's stern while a beautiful sunset graced her bow!
Weather calmed after dark and I got to enjoy conversation, Tom's guitar and singing and a few meteors!
Here is Sandy and Tom:
In the morning, the Catalina Mucky Duck and I broke away from the raft up and proceeded to sail back to the marina.
I quickly loaded Galactica at the ramp and took my time de-rigging her with the crew of Mucky Duck watching/helping!
What a sailing weekend! I'll post videos soon!
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO OF THE WEEKEND! ( put to the music 'Storming New Caprica' )
