Another perfect day ...

Not too bad a picture for a 3-yr old photographer!

... and this time Kintala went out to play with the rest of the fleet.  We had a couple of good excuses to skip working at the to-do list.  The best was having Daughter Eldest, much beloved Son in Law, and grand sons First and Third in town for the weekend for a family celebration.  (A celebration which included having Daughter Eldest's family gathered with Daughters Middle and Youngest, other much beloved Son in Law, grand sons Second and Newest, and grand daughters First, Second, and Third all under the same roof at the same time.)  Daughter Eldest and family are big supporters of "The Retirement Project" and so they took the opportunity to join us for a day sail to check out the sea (or lake) worthiness of the new dodger.  We didn't actually give it much of a test since the wind was light and the lake pretty flat, but making 2 or 3 knots in 5 or 6 of breeze, Kintala standing up straight and moving across the lake under a cloud of sail, almost finished teak glowing in the sunlight, grand son next-to-newest sleeping on Mama's arms while his older brother helped Grampa T with deck monkey duties?  Maybe, somewhere, some very lucky person had a day almost as perfect as ours ... maybe.

Dodger=perfect baby shelter from the cool breeze!

Chicago from 23,000 ft. at night

Of course a perfect day has to have some yang to go with the ying.  Deb and I managed a near perfect docking maneuver to finish the sail, then I had to run off for a pop-up flog of ye ol' jet northward to pick up a stranded band of company personnel.  I rolled back into the marina just shy of midnight and barely in time to toss a last few quips back and forth with the dwindling party still gathered around a fading bonfire.  Much of the day spent on the lake with family, several hours in the Z car, and a couple of more hours of night flogging in the flight levels?  Sleep was welcome and untroubled.

Photo courtesy of Kacey Kramer

We left the lake early today in order to gather under the aforementioned roof.  But we did miss some excitement.  Sadly, last week a new-to-them C&C 30 of friends sprung some kind of a leak.  During an evening dock walk by marina personnel the boat was floating on its lines.  Next morning the only thing not underwater was most of the mast and forestay.  The salvage team showed up this morning to lift the boat, but we had to head out before the deed was even started.  I've never seen a boat picked up off the bottom of a lake but I'll bet it was a show.

Of course having a friend's boat play submarine at the pier, just a few slips away from one's own, is slightly unnerving.  With Kintala floats untold hundreds of hours of labor, a big chunk of all of the money we have managed to accumulate over our lives, and the hopes of The Retirement Project.  I'll probably be checking the bilge a little more often for a while.