The Joys of Summer

Cascadia is settling in for the "90 Day Gray".  We had a nice December, but Mother Nature is making up for it now... cold... wet... windy.  So naturally, our thoughts turn to sunnier days.

Shark Reef Park - Lopez Island

It was early September - the best time to sail in The San Juan Islands. Mrs. Cascadian Prep and I were anchored in a little cove off of Lopez.  Just a warm and cloudless summer day spent on the foredeck reading and rocking gently with the waves. She - a bikini top and shorts from that lemon (lululemon?) place. He - Orvis quick dry shorts, sans shirt, and Top-siders. The other "she" - at Grandma's place. Could life get any better?

Suddenly, I felt the need to change the tunes and freshen my Dark 'N' Stormy, so down the companionway to the chart table I sprang. Upon my return, I noticed something else had changed.  Her Top was beSide her.

Life did get better.

Jay Ferguson's Thunder Island (I was a wee lad when it came out. Loved it then, love it now.)

Huzza!

[huh-zah] originally a sailor's shout of exaltation, encouragement, or applause. Perhaps originally a hoisting cry. (1573) 

 

With Summer fading into the half-light of Fall and madras giving way to viyella, it's time to get the reading lists together. Here are a few "shout-outs" to sailing-themed, non-fiction books I've enjoyed reading over the past few months.  Hit me with an email or comment if you have recommendations! Please note, I try to read only non-fiction or "classics"... oh, and the articles in Playboy.

• My Old Man and the Sea: A Father and Son Sail Around Cape Horn, by David Hays and Daniel Hays
• A New England father and son sail around Cape Horn.
• The Bounty : The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty, by Caroline Alexander
• A true(r) account of Captain Bligh and the allure of Tahitian women.
• The Motion of the Ocean: 1 Small Boat, 2 Average Lovers, and a Woman's Search for the Meaning of Wife, by Janna Cawrse Esarey
• Cascadian author(ess) and hubby sail around the Pacific (a fun read).
• Sailing with Vancouver: A modern sea dog, antique charts and a voyage through time, by Sam McKinney
• Late Cascadian author retraces the footsteps (wakes) of Vancouver's circumnavigation of Puget Sound.
• Unsinkable: A Young Woman's Courageous Battle on the High Seas, by Abby Sunderland and Lynn Vincent
• About that 16-yr old girl who attempts a single-handed trip around the world.

Boom Boom Bow

Almost one year from today, we will set sail out of Victoria, British Columbia for our  approximately two week voyage to Maui. Four of us on a 36-foot boat and the Pacific Ocean. I am looking forward to the total media purge, the inability to yield to the calling of my favorite blogs, the inability to write blogs, and the knowing what it's like to see nothing but water for days upon days. I'm told that you cross over out there, mentally, and that there is no going back. Like Cortez, I just might have to "burn the boats" when I get there.

The Race (held bienially)

The Boom




The Bow

"Seven Seas" by Echo & The Bunnymen

So You'd Rather Be Sailing?

frozen halyard line

22 degrees Fahrenheit. Ice on the deck. Frozen lines and sheets. 19.8 nautical miles. 5.6 knots average boat speed. 5 crew when we normally have 9. And 4 1/2 hours of fun, fun, fun.

The Corinthian Yacht Club's 2011 Tramp Harbor Race. We finished second in our class and second in the race overall.  (I think there were three boats total.)

But none of this matters because we do it for the kinship and the camaraderie... and the beer and booze.  We do it for the stories we can tell tomorrow or next year. We do it for the gear we "need" (really just want). But most of all, we do it for that perfect moment when all the work is done and you can stare out over the water and think about nothing at all.

Yeah, I'd rather be sailing. 

 

snowy rooftops



self-explanatory