Last Saturday morning, Debbie and I set our sights on a 12-mile motor across the lake to check out the east shore. As we clambered down to the dinghy, we heard shouts from out in the buoy field … it was Debbie’s brother Tracy, his wife Carol, and our niece Kelsie, who were just starting out on a day of rum running from north shore to south shore and back again in their ski boat. Debbie and I rowed out and we rafted up Splendido with Tracy’s ski boat, and the crew enjoyed Mimosas and caught up on the latest family news while I got Splendido ready for the crossing.

Kelsie was expecting a phone call from her boyfriend, who had been camping in Desolation Wilderness, so until the call came for them to go south and pick him up for the rum run, I climbed over the rail to check out Tracy’s ski boat, and Carol and Kelsie climbed aboard Splendido to hang out with Debbie.

The phone call from the boyfriend came in, and in a few moments, the ski boat was headed south, and Debbie and I finished our prep and unhooked for our voyage. The lake was like a millpond for the motor across, and the trusty Perkins pushed Splendido along at 4.6 knots while we relaxed and chatted about the week. Two and half hours later, Secret Harbor hove into view, and we began looking for a suitable spot to drop the hook and go for a swim. The beaches were pretty crowded, and fields of black underwater boulders made navigating a bit of a challenge, so we stayed offshore about 200 yards, dropped two anchors into the sugar-white sand about 20 feet below, and went for a swim.

Afterwards, as we were eating some really tasty Caprese sandwiches with heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella buffala, avocado and a yummy aioli on crusty ciabatta bread, we were suprised to see a 9-ft. RIB coming our way with a couple aboard. “Ahoy,” they hailed, and pulled alongside to introduce themselves. The friendly folks were Cap’n John and his mate Gina from the 1980 Catalina 30, Celestia, sailing out of North Tahoe Marina. Evidently, Cap’n John offers sailing charters aboard Celestia, and Gina is a wedding photographer. Debbie and Gina talked shop, caterer to wedding photographer, and John and I talked about the recent monsoon weather and the idiosyncrasies of Tahoe sailing. After a quick tour of Splendido, I offered our guests some wine, but they needed to get back, so we bid them a great day on the water, and cast off ourselves for the sail back to the west shore.

Winds were quite light, so we motor-sailed south for a few miles, then tacked and headed for Carnelian Bay. About 4:40 p.m., some sweet WSW winds kicked in, so we kept the motor on but were soon hitting 6 knots. We made our way just to the lee of Dollar Point, and then tacked southwest again, aiming for Eagle Rock, which is my icon for getting home.

As we drew closer, the wind backed off a bit, so we just enjoyed the view of Sugar Pine Point and the mountains beyond.

The sun dropped behind the mountains and we dropped sails and motored the rest of the way to our mooring ball. Debbie needed to get back home, but I decided to sleep aboard, as my friend Michael was coming up Sunday morning for a run down to Emerald Bay. Debbie grabbed her stuff, and I rowed her into shore.

After seeing her off, I rowed back out, had a hot shower on the transom, ate a sandwich, and went to bed. Surprisingly,Splendido was quiet all night, not rubbing up against the mooring ball or bumping against the dinghy, so I slept well. In the morning, I motored down to Obexer’s and had one of their delicious Harbormaster breakfast burritos, with sausage and curry, a huge beaker of black coffee, and also bought some water and ice to stock the boat for another fun day on the water.

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB