But along with the grunt work was some fantastic sailing! Two days in a row, over a weekend no less, the lake was lumped up with whitecaps and steady Force 4 - 5 wind. Saturday we had guests on Nomad. They own a nice sailboat that has seen them do a ton of work. But their introduction to sailing was a bit unfortunate. It seems one of the marina's die-hard racers took them out on an early romp and managed to put the fear of drowning in them. I'm sure he didn't mean to, but I learned a long time ago that what is good fun and excitement for some is a near death experience for others. (I have been told that my antics in acro planes and on motorcycles strike normal people as near suicidal. I don't get it, but then I gave up long ago thinking of myself as "normal.") For most its better to sneak up on having a boat on its ear with water flying into the cockpit
With a reef in her main and her sails trimmed on the soft side Nomad was every inch the solid cruising boat, showing our guests a really good time. For the most part I just stayed out of the way while our friends took turns at the helm and Deb showed them how to trim the sheets, hold a point of sail, and tack the boat. (Among countless other skills Deb is an excellent instructor.) We hove to for a fantastic lunch, and the only one who didn't seem to have the best of times was their little dog. He lost his breakfast not long after we left the dock. No harm done, after that he settled in and seemed to sleep most of the day. (Dog on board, another first for Nomad.)
Saturday evening was the highlight...a real wave basher on Juno. Friend Barry wanted to get some tacking angle numbers on his boat; the good winds and empty lake offered the perfect venue. With Kort on board as well the four of us headed out. With her full main flying and most of her trick jib rolled out Juno dug a rail into the lake and took off. Deb had the hardest job of the evening, wedged into the companionway writing down the compass headings as Barry shouted them out to her. Kort and I handled the sheets, Kort an expert sailor, me just doing what I was told. I got better at the timing though as we tacked time after time, each one a bit smoother than the last. We "washed the windows" on both sides of the cabin trunk, Barry got his numbers, Kort took the helm for a while, and then let me have a go. What an absolute blast! Later, running out of lake to play in, we set the sails wing-on-wing as we turned for home. I was still on the helm, but with the boat catching up to the fading wind of the late evening, Barry took over once again. That was fine with me. It is one thing for the owner / Captain to flog a $3500 Kevlar sail set on a custom built roller furler, quite another for me to do it. I had not helmed a boat like that, in those kinds of conditions, before. I'm still grinning like a school boy.
Saturday night late the winds returned and Sunday dawned full of promise. Nomad left her slip for a one-tack-to-the-dam, one-tack-home romp that saw 6.4 on the GPS several times. It was such a perfect weekend that you just know we have a bunch of dead-calm days in our future...dues must be paid.
On a completely different subject it turns out Deb and I will not be sailing a 38' monohull in the Gulf this 4th of July. The trip has been cancelled due to the oil spill. I feel like I should say something profound about that, but I have not the skill, the words, or the wisdom. One can't but hurt for those who have lost a life's worth of work and effort to this unfolding disaster, though that helps them not at all.
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