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