A great end to a wonderfully busy weekend with friends - it started Friday night with Amber's birthday bash at the VIP room of a favorite bar, followed by girls/guys night on Saturday and ended with a great sail today with Will and Taylor.
We got started around 1230 after Will and I prepped the boat, and I ran home to get the new lines we were going to use for the running backstays. Taylor showed up and we finished prep and headed out into the fog. I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I turned out of the marina, but we ended up with a 0.5 miles of visibility which was just enough to feel comfortable. The breeze was nice and we quickly set the main and small jib, and tested out the runners. What a difference! You can quickly see the mast straighten and the main get much, much fuller right in the center which is perfect.
Will and Taylor got some much desired upwind practice while I played with trim, and we dodged a ferry and an oil tanker who popped out of the fog after gathering our attention with loud horn blasts. The radar once again put me at ease as it was easy to see the ships on the screen minutes before they appeared from the mist.
With the southerly breeze my target for the day was Shilshole so we could see how the PSSC (Puget Sound Sailing Championships) regatta was going. We made out way quickly upwind to Shilshole and the North Course of PSSC where we got the watch the big boats coming downwind into the bottom mark of the first race. We enjoyed watching the many elegant roundings, but soon had to tack away from the fleet to avoid interfering in the race.
At Will's suggestion, we stopped for lunch at Shilshole grabbing grub from the burger joint near the dry docks and enjoying a sailing conversation with a former neighbor of Taylor's - Vikkers - who was at the marina enjoying some kite building with his kids and finishing off the day with some great looking ice cream sundaes. We left lunch just in time to see the racing fleet heading in, though with enough time to give Vikkers a quick tour of Andiamo, which is in serious need of a good cleaning and housekeeping session.
We quickly vacated 'X' dock to make room for the mad rush of dry dock boats and headed out to find what little wind we could. Will watched over the helm and I showed Taylor how to rig and set the spinnaker, which we were able to fly for all of about 30 minutes before the wind died and we doused sail and powered back home. On the way back, Will and Taylor tended to the many lines that needed to be stowed while I worked on detaching the main from the mast cars so we could take it home.
In all it was a near perfect Autumn sail. Would have been nice to have had some nice wind for the sail home, but I'll be happy to take the warmth of a sunny day and good times with friends.
Next sail is in November - a Lemans-style race in Gig Harbor. Looking forward to some fun at that one as well as the new main!!
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