Saturday morning, Debbie and I got up early and had a bunch of chores to do around the yard, including planting a pine tree, moving several other shrubs and replanting them, watering, and general yard clean-up. The day broke clear and bright, and it didn’t take long to work up a sweat. Around noon, we took a breather and contemplated just staying home and continuing on with our chores, or heading up to do some housekeeping on the boat. (Guess which one appealed more!)

We loaded up the oars, tools, drill, and drinks and headed up the Mount Rose Highway toward Tahoe. We stopped by the 7-Eleven in Carnelian Bay for a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos and a bag of ice. The Cool Ranch Doritos are kind of a summer thing for us…we enjoy them once a year, and they remind of us of the brilliant but brief summer season at Tahoe. We were curious how much traffic we’d find in Tahoe City, as the cars started backing up at about Dollar Point, but things moved smoothly, and before we knew it, we were headed south on 89 to Homewood where Splendido was bobbing peacefully, and where there were a number of good places to park along the beach.

The main thrust of the day’s trip was for Debbie to give Splendido the woman’s touch in the cabin, as I had stowed most of the household goods but was a bit confused as to where everything really belonged (this is true at home as well. Must be a guy thing.) She wanted to get everything squared away because we had invited her sister Krista and brother-in-law Matt out for a sail next Thursday, so time was of the essence. When she finished up with her tidying and stowing, I got busy with the drill and the seat benches. They are held to the hull with stainless-steel screws, but these screws have been in and out so many times, they had worn bigger holes, so there was no “purchase” any longer. I modified some of those drywall plastic expander deals by clipping off the ends and then screwing the screws into them. It was a perfect solution; the screws now hold the boards in rock-solid, the fiberglass is intact and protected from splintering; and God forbid if the boat ever flipped, everything would stay in place.

Debbie got a little woozy working down below because of the all the ski boat chop, so when I came up for air, she was nearly asleep on the pillows in the cockpit, hat pulled low over her eyes. The boat was looking pretty “showroom” at this point, so we agreed that a little sail would provide a nice change from the chop. The forecast was for light winds in the 10-12 kt. range, but the winds freshened a bit when we were out on the water, so I reduced the jib to about 60 percent and pulled the traveler high to the windward side to twist off the not-infrequent gusts. It was a comfortable and fast combination. As we neared Sugar Pine Point, we decided to tack upwind to Obexer’s for a pump-out, as we were getting the occasional earthy wafting from the head. Alas, when we arrived at Obexer’s at about 5:30 p.m., the pump station had been locked up for the night. The young man on the dock advised us to come back in the morning, so we glided on and motored the mile or so up the west shore to our buoy. With our little Perkins Perama gurgling and pushing us along at 4 kts., we were able to relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery along the west shore. We had used a fair amount of electricity with the CD player and the cabin lights and the water pump running, so this gave us a chance to recharge the batteries, too.

Back on the hook, I laid down for a mini-nap in the cockpit while Debbie enjoyed a glass of Chardonnay. The corner of the lake where we find ourselves this year is very peaceful and visually stunning. I was tempted to stay the night aboard, but we felt the pull of our two cats at home, and we wanted to see the Supermoon rise from the Tahoe Meadows on our way back to Reno. I must’ve read the time wrong in the paper, but the giant moon popped up over Slide Mountain as we were enjoying fish tacos at our new favorite casual joint, El Sancho in Tahoe Vista. The perigee moon is apparently 13 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than its counterpart, the apogee moon, and it looked it. It was so bright, in fact, that driving home, I had to avert my eyes to avoid seeing spots. All in all, it was a wonderful though tiring day, and we both slept like rocks. Can’t wait until our next sail this Thursday!

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB