Yes Jackie, I have an aversion to going sailing when I have to run the motor all day. It seems so not like sailing. Brian
Okay, Brian. You were right. There wasn’t much wind. But for a brief moment in time it gusted to 5 knots, which is when this photo was taken. After that? Not so much.
But it was another beautiful day, and there was a surprising number of boats out there floating around.
I arrived at the Richmond harbor to find Steve Katzman laying in Dianne’s cockpit reading a spy novel in the sunshine. He was hungry.
“Let’s go to Sam’s. I filled my outboard with gas.” Oh ye of little faith. On the way to Dura Mater on E Dock I met up with Chris Case.
“Come with us to Sam’s?” No. Chris was working on his autopilot. From the sound of drills and sanders, it was obvious that he wasn’t the only one working on his boat.
Bob Johnston came ambling over. Connie had asked if his new boat had a working head, which suggested that she might be interested in sailing on Surprise! one day. Of course he lied and told her “yes”, his new sailboat had a working head. So Bob was on his way to buy “head hose”.
I rigged Dura Mater and on our way out we passed Al Germain, standing next to Bandicoot on D dock and smiling.
“Hi, Al! Coming out to sail?” No. Al was working on his boat. Doing something. Does it matter? It was that kind of day.
Motored out into the Reach and raised the bumble bee, which enabled us to tack back and forth, back and forth, never quite making it into the bay proper. There were lots of little boats out there doing the same thing: Not much of anything but enjoying the sunshine and being on the water. This beauty passed by, motoring slowly.
Steve K is a pretty good sport, and Dianne is a light boat. He circled back around DM reminding me that he was still hungry. So I threw him a nectarine, kept the almonds to myself.
By this time the flood had started and there was no hope of exiting the Reach without an engine, so I turned on the Engine By Dave and we entered The Bay. I raised my spinnaker and – amazingly – it filled. For about twenty minutes we sailed along toward Berkeley, which was not the way to Sam’s at all. Dianne kept pace, circling DM a couple of times, Steve reminding me that he was still hungry. He has never sailed to Sam’s !!!
I called over to him: “You can’t motor to Sam’s the first time! Sam’s is best approached by sail! We’ll have to go another day.”
He conceded the point and lay down in the cockpit to read his novel again as his boat slowly floated alongside DM on the glass. I made coffee and drank it and then I took down the spinnaker because, I admit, it was sagging against the spreaders.
On the way back in, Tony Bourque texted me that he had left a gift for me in Now & Zen’s cockpit, over there on the other side of FUGU. A jar of honey from the bees he maintains on the upper deck of his huge Berkeley brown shingle. Thank you, Tony! Wonder where it got the name Baloo’s honey? That’s a trivia question for the reader here.
Sitting in Steve’s cockpit, tied up to the end of E Dock, we wondered whether bees in Berkeley pollinated pot plants. We ate teaspoons of the stuff and were hopeful. I don't know about Steve, but I didn’t get high at all.
As the sun set I drove out of the yard, passing Chris and Rick Elkins chatting by the clubhouse. Richmond Yacht Club is SSS Central. Its motto is “This Club was built for fun”. Which is good if you like that sort of thing.
