I have to laugh at how much work it was to launch the boat this year … after fixing this and that over the winter, diligently checking things off my list and working hard to get it all right, it all went to pieces on launch day. The big thing that happened was that I thought I’d be all clever and tie strings to all of the halyards, run them out of the mast, and tie them off, so that on launch day, I’d just re-string everything quickly and off we’d go.

You can guess the rest.

On May 29th, when brother-in-law Tracy and I showed up at Obexer’s to launch, the first thing that happened was one of the halyard strings broke as the mast lay on the sawhorses and I was tugging the main halyard up the interior of the mast. Without going into details about the sailor’s oaths and hand-wringing that went on, suffice it to say that, thanks to the kind folks at Obexer’s, we used a wire reel to get things going again. That part set us back a full hour. The next thing that happened was that, even though I’d lubed up the impeller, I turned the through-hull valve to close rather than to open. Now, my standard operating procedure is to fire up the Perkins, then jump onto the sugar-scoop transom and check that water’s coming out of the exhaust with my hand, but one of the “helpers” on the dock said he saw water coming out, so I didn’t do that part. (It wasn’t water; it was dry exhaust.) By the time I realized the mistake, the impeller was toast, shredded into a dozen pieces. After disassembling the hoses and cleaning all the pieces out of the screen that keeps such debris out of the cooling system, I popped the spare impeller in, and things were good again. But that set us back yet another hour. Fortunately, we stopped for lunch and enjoyed a killer BLAT sandwich and some malted beverages at Obexer’s General Store. Feeling well-fed, the rest of the afternoon went off without a hitch, and I was able to get Splendido on the buoy without any more drama.

LET THE SEASON BEGIN On Saturday, June 13th, my friend Andy Gagnon agreed to come with me to shake down Splendido. Winds were forecast to be in the 15 kt. range, with gusts to 25-30. We motored out a bit around 1:30 p.m. to get out of the swirlies near shore on Hurricane Bay. We raised sail and set off south toward D.L. Bliss State Park.

The winds were pretty good until we got near the day marker at Sugar Pine Point. I call this area “the vortex,” because of the weird swirlies that happen as the southerly winds meet the westerly winds coming off of McKinney Bay. We headed east to get away from the worst of it, and saw Cheeseburger in Paradise scooting out in the direction of Stateline to the south.

At Sugar Pine State Park, there were a bunch of sailboats pulled in close to shore, some daysailers, others actually boat camping. The water at the midlake buoys was only 60 degrees, so there weren’t any swimmers as we went by.

We tacked and entered the shallow, Caribbean-looking waters with the white-sand bottom, and ghosted along in the lee of the tall pines lining the shore by the Ehrmann Mansion. Tacking again, we came within 200 yards of shore and skimmed along, checking out the different boats and the people on the shore. A few bright gusts came up, so we headed out to enjoy the good winds in the open water across Meeks and Rubicon Bay.

By this time, it was about 4:30 p.m., and Splendido was dancing lively across the water in the breeze. I realized later that I forgot to use the traveler to let some of the gusts twist off the top of the sail, so we had quite a heel going on in some of the gusts. I guess I was a little fatigued … surprised I didn’t notice earlier. C’est la sailing.

Heading back north on a port tack, we had to reach up to the north end of Hurricane Bay to tack again and reach back toward Homewood. At the end of the run, the winds lightened up considerably and we ghosted up to the buoy under mainsail alone. I hooked the buoy on the first try, and we were done.

Special thanks to sailor Andy for helping me out. It always feels great to have a good day’s sail under your belt. I’m looking forward to lots more fun, especially with our newly-formed Big Blue Tahoe Yacht Club. More on that in later posts. Until then, fairs winds and smooth sailing. DB