Debbie and I have been getting out on the water this season at every opportunity — almost to the point of exhaustion. (Yes, it’s a tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it.) 🙂 Seriously, though, at our age, you really do notice the physical effort involved with sailing at 6,224 ft. above sea level, so you’ve got to keep your strength up.

To that point, I want to share an amazing recipe for olive oil cake that Debbie makes (with all credit to legendary pastry chef Jennifer Shelbo), which is a perfect snack for munching on when you’ve thrown down the hook and have a chance to rest your hands and eyes in the cool shade of your boom tent to beat the dazzling sunshine and heat that’s now a part of summer sailing at Lake Tahoe.

Two things come to mind about sailing so far this summer:

1. The performance of the new standing rigging and CDI furler installed and tuned by Pete Lewis of Tahoe Sailboat Service is amazing. Our previous boatspeed record was 6.4 knots. Yesterday (7/16/22), I hit 6.7 knots while singlehanding in 19-21 knots of breeze. While expensive to do, the upgrade was worth it. Thanks, Pete!
2. I have yet to meet my sailing heroes Brady Trautman and Alex Blue of SV Delos/Cruisers Academy fame, although their Catalina 22 teaching boats are moored only 100 yards away from Splendido’s buoy. As a total dork fanboy, I wear my SV Delos rash guard shirt on a lot of sunny days.
   
   Fair winds, DB