Month: July 2018

A Day In The Life Of Lake Tahoe Sailors

On By David BranbyIn Food & Drink, On The Water, SplendidoLeave a comment

I thought it would be interesting to show the sequence of events we take when Debbie and I feel the need to get out on the water and go for a sail at beautiful Lake Tahoe.

  1. We get up, have our coffee, and check the “Lake Tahoe Recreation Forecast” to see what kind of conditions we should expect for afternoon sailing.

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2. We load my Toyota Prius with a seabag, food, drink and oars.

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3. We take the scenic one-hour drive through the Sierras to Lake Tahoe.

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4. We park, unload the gear, and walk over to the dinghy at the shoreline.

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5. We load everything into our Walker Bay dinghy and row out.

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6. We run through our departure checklist and set sail to wherever we feel like, most often southwards.

7. We drop the hook and wave to our fellow boaters.

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8. I set up and light the BBQ while Debbie preps and cooks.

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9. We sail off into the sunset, make things ship-shape above decks and below, row back to shore, and settle in for the drive back home. Sometimes, we even stop to get ice cream cones in Tahoe Vista or Kings Beach on the North Shore before heading down the hill to our home in Reno.

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We’re very grateful to be able to enjoy sailing Lake Tahoe aboard our 1993 Catalina 270, Splendido, in this routine yet rewarding way.

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

Sailing On A Friday After Work

On By David BranbyIn Food & Drink, On The Water, Splendido1 Comment

It has been a challenging week – Debbie had to move her 85-year-old dad into assisted living, and I’d gotten a bit stressed trying to wrangle a couple of big projects at work – so we made a beeline for the boat Friday afternoon after work to see if we could get a little sailing in, followed by dinner back at the buoy.

Winds were light and westerly when we arrived, and warm — about 80 degrees at lake level. The water temperature is now 65 degrees, and warming daily. Now that we’re in our seventh year of sailing Splendido, we have a dialed-in checklist we follow to get out quickly and get the sails up. With partly cloudy skies and what I call “Tahoe Monsoon” conditions (high pressure over the West and thunderstorms forming in the afternoons), we motored out and found a gentle breeze to set sail. We started by shaking out the reef we’d been sailing with so far this season, but later on, when the canyon winds kicked up with gusts in excess of 20 knots, things just got uncomfortable and noisy, so we turned her into the wind, put the first reef back in, and it was smooth sailing after that. I poured Debbie a nice glass of Lava Cap Grenache from a recent road trip we did to Amador County, CA  (check it out if you haven’t – it’s like Napa 40 years ago), and I grabbed my trusty Clausthaler N/A beer and settled in for a fun afternoon. We cruised around McKinney and Hurricane bays, and were surprised how few boats were out. Later on, we saw four or five more sails come out, including Tahoe Cruz, with a deck full of tourists enjoying the ride.

Back on the hook at about 8:15 p.m., Debbie went below and whipped up a delicious caprese salad with roasted chicken and a balsamic dressing and a fresh loaf of crusty bread. As she prepared dinner, I tidied up on deck and worked on the lazy jacks/lazy bag that’ve gotten a bit out of whack. Afterwards, we buttoned up Splendido and rowed the dinghy back to shore in the gathering darkness, grateful for the chance to sail away from the anxiety of life’s changes and challenges, at least for an afternoon.

Fair winds and smooth sailing. DB

A Strong Start To The 2018 Season

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Keeping Up Appearances, Mechanical Stuff, On The Water, Overnighters, SplendidoLeave a comment

First, a word of thanks to my friends who helped make commissioning a lot easier this season: To Michael Salley, who generously let me store Splendido in his industrial yard, with access to water and electricity (and a forklift!), I am much beholden; it allowed us to get everything ship-shape in record time. To Jamie Filbin, my dear friend, fellow adventurer and sailing enthusiast, I am deeply indebted for the many hours of prep help, cleaning and waxing the hull (thank goodness for Collinite), helping paint the bottom and (this is where the forklift comes in), knowing how to drive one so we could lift the mast up 13 feet from the sawhorses it was resting on while we checked the rigging, replaced the halyards, and rebuilt the masthead.

Owning a sailboat in her prime (Splendido turns 25 this year) has its challenges, and one of them is parts wearing out and needing to be replaced. Notice that I was careful not to say “older” or “aged” sailboat – I am reminded of my favorite Aubrey/Maturin stories written by Patrick O’Brian:

Dr. Stephen Maturin: By comparison, the Surprise is a somewhat aged man-o-war. Am I not correct?

Captain Jack Aubrey: Would you call me an aged man-o-war, doctor? The Surprise is not old; no one would call her old. She has a bluff bow, lovely lines. She’s a fine seabird: weatherly, stiff and fast… very fast, if she’s well handled. No, she’s not old; she’s in her prime.

One of this year’s challenges was to repair, replace, or fabricate the masthead divider plate for our weatherly, stiff and (relatively) fast Splendido. Our masthead divider plate had worn out – had broken, in fact – and so I contacted Catalina Yachts in Florida and they searched the warehouse and couldn’t find anything that would work. So, I had to fabricate it myself, which was not difficult, and I actually enjoyed the challenge of finding the proper type of plastic and doing the engineering drawings and making the thing whole again. While I was at it, I also replaced two of the Delrin masthead sheaves (as well as the ones for the deck organizers, which had worn flat spots in them after all these years).

Once we launched the boat, I noticed a slow drip coming out of the sea water pump when it was running. Jamie and I pulled the pump, examined it, and couldn’t figure out why it was dripping. I got on the phone with the kind folks from Transatlantic Diesel, and they said it was probably the seals that had worn out. So, one evening over beer and pretzels, my engineer/brother-in-law Tracy and I disassembled the pump, replaced the seals I bought from TAD, and it’s been running like a top ever since. (Thanks, Tracy!)

Sailing? Why yes, the point of all this activity was to actually get out on the water. Long story short, the sailing has been great. Here’s a quick YouTube™ link to perhaps our best sailing day, June 25th, with Splendido rocking out in 21 knots of wind, racing southwards at 6.5 knots plus for miles on end.

On more normal sailing days, with 10 – 15 knot Zephyrs, Debbie and I have gone out and enjoyed gentler sails. On the eve of July Fourth, we had a wonderful sail with one reef in the mainsail and about 50% of the genoa out, which took us to our favorite gunkhole toward the south end of Sugar Pine State Park. There, we saw Terry Wasik and his 41-foot Hunter, Cheeseburger in Paradise, with the hook down, settling in for the night. We dropped the hook about 75 yards away and grilled steaks on the Magma BBQ while the sun sank in the western sky. As the sky darkened, we saw the flashes of fireworks at King’s Beach on the north shore, and sat on the deck enjoying the show.

Once again, I am filled with gratitude at the gift of friends, this lake, this boat, and being healthy and able to enjoy it all. To my fellow sailors, I have a deep appreciation for all the hard work, headaches, and heartburn that goes into pursuing our shared passion for life under sail. What’s remarkable to me is that every season, getting out on the water, trimming the sails, and cruising along with one foot on on the wheel and the wind in your hair is like a magical amnesiac that makes all the effort worthwhile.

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB