On Tuesday afternoon, my nephew Eric, brother-in-law Matt, and brother-in-law Tracy joined me for an afternoon sail. Winds were light and variable, but we managed 5 knots on our cruise south along the west shore of Lake Tahoe. At the outset, we found ourselves gliding through large rafts of sugar-pine pollen that coated the near-glassy lake, but these disappeared the further south we sailed.

The boat music alternated between Yo Yo Ma and White Snake, and between rounds of beers for the guests and St. Pauli N.A. for me, we joked and laughed and sat back in awe at the stunning beauty of Lake Tahoe.

We were celebrating the summer solstice, and glad that it was the longest day of the year, actually, because right as we passed Tahoma, the wind died. Just before it did, we practiced a man-overboard drill, and got the floating cushion on the first try. Matt served as pointer, Tracy manned the sheets, and Eric was the boat-hook man. Very proud of everyone’s efforts, and happy to have a drill under my belt for the first time this season.

As the sun set and a cool pink light settled over the surrounding skies, we fired up the Perkins diesel and began our long, slow motor back to Tahoe City Marina. Overhead, a handful of jetliners cast long contrails to and fro in the western sky, and slowly the lights of lakeshore houses began to appear. Overhead, the firmament shone like diamonds in a midnight-blue sky. Eric had the helm, and with prompts from our hand-held GPS, was able to guide Splendido right into the channel. As we were offloading our gear at the gas dock, an older couple on a Catalina 22 ghosted by us, gently motoring out for a look at the sky full of stars.

Fair winds and smooth sailing. DB

We’d been looking forward all week to getting out on Splendido on Saturday, June 18th. The wind started kicking up around 1:30 p.m., so we hoisted sail and headed for Sugar Pine Point. We hadn’t gone 200 yards when I saw catspaws ripping across the water, indicating a major gust. I told Debbie to hold on, and I headed up, but not before a pretty surprising heel. Debbie had had a tough week, and she was looking forward to relaxing with a glass of wine while I steered, but it wasn’t meant to be on this particular Saturday. Before long, we were both working hard, putting a reef in the mainsail and using just a sliver of the jib to keep things stable and enjoyable in the strong gusts. The gusts moderated a bit in the later afternoon, so we could relax a bit more, but the day ended up being a bit of a nailbiter, all in all.

The good news, mechanically-speaking, was that the mysterious evaporation of the coolant head tank turned out to be caused by the loose hose clamp, so discovering that was a relief. The engine fired up like a charm, and we even had nice hot water (last week, not so much) from the taps, so I have a feeling we got things squared away.

While Debbie was slowly motoring toward our buoy to put Splendido on the hook for the night, the rum boat Tahoe Cruz came ripping in under full sail, cutting across the buoy field instead of entering through the outer channel markers, startling my wife and throwing off her line, so she had to motor around and try it again. After a challenging day on the water, we could have done without the hijinks and would have appreciated a little more consideration from our neighbor at Tahoe City Marina.

Fair winds and smooth sailing. DB

On Sunday, June 12th, we celebrated our dear friend Pam Shriver’s birthday aboard Splendido. Pam and her husband Bob are our longtime friends and traveling companions, seasoned survivors of many wine country excursions and even weeks abroad in Provence. Debbie prepared some French Laundry-style buttermilk battered fried chicken and a zesty new potato salad, followed by chocolate cupcakes with a vanilla bean ganache. The trio shown here downed an able-bodied seaman’s share of Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio, while yours truly stayed sober and kept all the lines and sheets in order as we sailed in large circles, lazily following the light and variable winds. To her credit, Splendido managed a respectable 6.1 knots at her peak. The day turned out to be a little warmer than expected, and a good time was had by all. At the end of our day, the stern-wheeler Tahoe Gal had anchored near our buoy and had a band playing on board, so I had to chase off a poaching spectator boat off our buoy at Tahoe City Marina so we could put Splendido to bed. Note to self: Prepare a quantity of water-balloons for future encounters with thoughtless buoy poachers.

Fair winds and smooth sailing. DB