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