Category: On The Water

A Taste of Tahoe on a Holiday Weekend

On By David BranbyIn Food & Drink, On The Water, Overnighters, Ports Of Call, Splendido1 Comment

This could be a story about changing out a thermostat on a 1993 Perkins diesel (and how it took two strapping midlifers 48 hours to tear down the engine in a wildly rocking boat on a busy Fourth of July weekend), but to hell with that. This is a story about Tahoe’s unexpected delights—places, pizza, tacos and thirst-quenching libations.

The good news is, we replaced the wonky thermostat. The better news is, my buddy Jamie and I discovered some Tahoe treasures, including a front-row seat at Chambers Landing Grill for an awesome sunset. I tucked into a veggie pizza and a Coors N/A, while Jamie devoured a plate of their amazing tacos and a crisp glass of Kim Crawford sauv blanc. Chambers was hopping with relaxed familes and lots of kids running around, climbing trees and playing paddle ball on the golden sand. The food was yummy, the service was outstanding (despite the fact that we had on Eau du Boat fragrance, two-day beards and grimy boat clothes, amidst the finery of the folks around us). The setting, of course, was pure summer Tahoe: pinkish light settling over the Sierras, the scent of warm sugar pines, and the sounds of happy families sharing stories and talking with their neighbors, largely vaxxed and relaxed, a prelude to a return to normalcy.

Not gonna lie—it wasn’t hard to become a member of the Clean Plate Club at Chambers Grill.

After dinner, we made it back to Splendido and decided to sleep on the lazarettes in the open air—something I had rarely done before. The view was spectacular as the sky darkened and the Milky Way appeared.

After a great afternoon sail in balmy 14 kt. breezes, we slept out in the cockpit in sleeping bags.

I woke up about a quarter to five to absolute silence and the stars overhead fading quietly into the dawn. Jamie was out like a light, so I chilled and just watched the light come up over the lake.

About 5:45 a.m., the first water ski boat roared to life, breaking the silence and the millpond surface of the lake.

After a couple of cups of hot coffee, we rowed in and drove up to Fire Sign Café to see about breakfast. Not surprisingly, the place was packed with holiday guests, so we wandered across the street to West Shore Market and picked up provisions for the day.

Back on board, I put up the shade tent to beat the heat, then we got after swapping out the thermostat. Jamie and I both ended up getting a little “green” from the constant tossing and turning, so we alternated “coming up for air” in the cockpit. Mission accomplished, we ran a number of tests, made sure everything was tight, then buttoned her up and headed home.

I can’t wait to get back on board with Debbie and friends and get some more summer sailing in! Huge thanks to Jamie for helping wrench on the engine and sharing a classic couple of days at Lake Tahoe.

Happy Fourth of July to all who celebrate—and fair winds to you and yours. DB

Back On Lake Tahoe After 634 Days

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Mechanical Stuff, On The Water, Splendido1 Comment


It feels awesome to have Splendido back out on Tahoe. Tracy and I launched her last Wednesday, June 16, and had a relatively smooth time of it. Launching every year is an exercise in project management—I had a three page pre-launch checklist, and still, we somehow lost a shroud turnbuckle on the drive up. Tracy, who started his working life as an iron worker before earning his degree in civil engineering, pulled out some high-tension wire and rigged a temporary latticework wiring to hold the shroud in place while we put in an order for a replacement turnbuckle. It was a work of art.

There’s a new rigger at Obexer’s named Pete Lewis, a mechanical engineer by training and a helpful guy. He put the order in for the new turnbuckle, and he and I got to talking about rigging in general—which made me think about the last time Splendido’s standing rigging was replaced. Short answer: I don’t know. So, that is also on the list for fall 2021.

I actually had a lot of fun getting her ready to sail last week, but I had to laugh—after more than a year and a half on the hard, a robin had made a beautiful, elaborate nest in the anchor locker! I just discovered it when Debbie and I went up yesterday to install the 150 genoa and attach the lines to the newly-tailored lazy bag. I gently picked up the tangle of hay, feathers and broken egg shells and set it out on the water—an avian Kon Tiki that gently floated away.

As soon as we get the new turnbuckle delivered and installed, it’s sail time. Grateful to our new buoy owner, Chris Champas, and hoping that the summer fire season is mild. Fingers crossed—South Lake Tahoe hit 91 degrees last week … six degrees warmer than the last same-day record of 85 degrees, set in 1985.

And, as happens when launching, I dropped a brand-new $38 impeller over the side at our buoy. It will be the first thing I dive for when I get my PADI scuba certification in mid-July.

Fair winds and following seas! DB

Friend Ships: Zack Sisemore’s Catalina 22, “Love Boat”

On By David BranbyIn Friend Ships, Keeping Up Appearances, On The WaterLeave a comment

One of my favorite sailboats on Lake Tahoe is Zack Sisemore’s Love Boat, a 1988 Catalina 22 sailing out from Tahoe’s north shore. In 2013, Zach and a gal he was dating at the time bought the boat from a California woman whose sailor husband had passed on, and Zack’s “barn find” turned out to be the sprightly sailing vessel you see here.

How bad did Zack want it? “I sold my grandpa’s old truck and my parachute to fund the boat. It was hard to part ways with Grandpa’s old red truck, which had about 315,000 miles on a twisted frame, but I figure Grandpa would be proud that it was going to help fund a sailboat.” he said.

Zack got the boat for a pretty good price, especially considering that it came with “an SUV full of sailboat stuff the owner’s wife had found in the garage in addition to all the stuff that was already in the boat. She also included a 4” stack of records, service manuals, and receipts, which tells me that this boat had been well taken care of,” Zack added.

But, as with all things related to sailing, there were hidden expenses that popped up along the way, including a snapped drive shaft on his dad’s truck that cost $700 to fix.

What impressed me most about Love Boat, though, was the way Zack immediately went to work figuring out how to repair a significant void in her wing keel, filling it with foam down to the lead and epoxy-and-fiberglassing it over and fairing it until she was as good (or better than) new.

Debbie and I see Zach and his friends cruising along in Love Boat a couple of times a summer, always with smiles as big as Tahoe and friendly waves as we pass. I look forward to getting back on the water when the pandemic is over, and hope to see this “friend ship” riding the Tahoe blue once again.

Q&A with Zack Sisemore, Skipper, Love Boat

Q: What do you love most about Love Boat?
A: I love introducing first-time sailors to my boat. Teaching friends to sail is very entertaining! Watching someone’s eyes about to pop out of their head the first time they heel over brings me so much joy. Fumbling with the cleat hitch, oversteering through a tack, wrapping the winch counter clockwise are also comedy. But the absolute best is when the mistakes get cleaned up and seeing the satisfaction of friends beginning to understand sailing.

Q: What would you change about your boat?
A: The Love Boat will never be a perfect vessel but I’m happy with that. At the top of my list would be reupholstered interior cushions. Just a bit dated and falling apart. Next would be lighting. I don’t sail too much in the dark, but I need navigation and anchor lights. And lastly, my poor mainsail is on its last leg. Would love to go with in-mast or lazy jacks but doesn’t really make sense on the old girl.

Q: What was your most fun or interesting time on Lake Tahoe?
A: July 4, 2018 comes to mind. First time I took mom out. The wind was consistently blowing 15-20 knots. It was my mom’s first sail. I had the sails damn near touching the water for about 5 hours straight and not once did my mom seem uncomfortable or scared.

Another date that comes to mind is July 4, 2019. It wasn’t a sail, but my roommate Griffin and I lived on the sailboat at anchor for a week while renting out our house. We were both working long hours. No dinghy to get to and from the boat. We’d meet on the beach after work. Griffin would sit on an inner tube and I’d tow him out on the paddleboard with a rope connected to my ankle. Silly but fun.

Q: What was your worst experience sailing Lake Tahoe?
A: There was a lot of trial and error when I first bought the Love Boat as I had ZERO sailing experience and maybe 20 minutes on a power boat. The first couple of years, I didn’t have a buoy, so I had to launch the boat every time. I think it was summer of 2015 or 2016 and the lake level was very low, so I decided to launch at Obexer’s on an east wind day.

Well … Obexer’s boat launch faces east! It’s also a crowded fuel dock! Also, I had to launch alone as my now ex-wife couldn’t drive trailer or boat! So, in the chaos of it all, I launched, leaving my cell phone in the truck. Tied up really quick and moved the truck just outta the way. The waves were pounding the poor boat into the dock and the mast was swinging so hard the it too was hitting the dock, so I had to get the hell outta there. So here’s the scene: I’m circling the buoy field trying to give Sara instructions on how/where to park the truck. I have no phone, so I have to yell instructions as I’m circling around. There’s nowhere to tie up without beating up my boat. The guys at Obexer’s were not any help at all. After 45 minutes of circling, I tie up at the fuel dock, back the truck into the launch, and called it a day. Lesson learned: don’t launch in heavy water and if you do, have someone with you who can actually help. Your plan has to be bulletproof in heavy water.

Q: What would you tell people about Tahoe that they might be surprised to know?
A:  Lake Tahoe’s average depth of 988 feet is a shocker to most.

Fair winds and smooth sailing. – DB

Once again to Emerald Bay

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, On The Water, Ports Of Call, SplendidoLeave a comment

On Sept. 14, our last sail of the season, Jamie Filbin and I cruised down to Emerald Bay on a glorious Saturday morning. Lake Tahoe has rarely looked more magnificent, and we pretty much had the lake to ourselves as we made our way south about 11 miles to the entrance of the bay.

Before we set out, we pulled Splendido up to a nearby public dock and offloaded a bunch of stuff for the winter – spare anchor, chain and rode; pillows; blankets and linens; kitchen supplies and bathroom décor; basically, anything that wasn’t nailed down. To me, it always feels like Splendido springs to life when she’s lightened of all the boat-camping gear. She’s a little livelier, a little more “yar,” as they say.

When we got to the entrance of Emerald Bay, it seemed like every boater left on the lake had had the same idea. These photos don’t show it so much, but there were dozens of boats hanging around Fannette Island, anchors down, girls sunning themselves on the backs of speedboats, guys trolling around, admiring the scenery.

The wind came up and we had a strong sail back north with the wind on the quarter. We averaged 6 knots all the way home, and Splendido sailed like a champ.

Once we tied up, Jamie and took off the sails and boom and stored them below for the winter ahead. I’d scheduled a pull-out later that week, so this was the last hurrah for the season.

Grateful for every day on the water, and for friends to share it with.

Fair winds and smooth sailing, until next time. DB

The Seiche Phenomenon at Lake Tahoe

On By David BranbyIn On The Water, Overnighters, SplendidoLeave a comment

Sleeping aboard a sailboat on a calm summer night can be one of life’s simple pleasures. For me, that typically means setting out two hooks in a V-configuration, just to have that extra sense of security, and arranging sheets and halyards to minimize noise in the rigging. I flip on the masthead light and settle in, feeling the residual roll and heave you can expect when speedboats have been out on the lake all day. After an hour or so, these swells flatten out, and slumber is deep and satisfying. Until, that is, there’s a major bump in the night, and you bolt out of bed to see what’s going on.

(c) laketahoeG/The Dam Café @ Lake Tahoe, 2016.

That’s what happened last summer around Labor Day. Debbie and I were boat-camping along the west shore of Lake Tahoe when, at about 2 a.m., I felt a dramatic rise and then fall of the boat. About 8-10 seconds later, there was another. When you’re sleeping, this change really grabs your attention, because you have the sudden and somewhat unpleasant sensation of falling.

I rolled out of the aft berth and climbed up on deck. In the moonlight, I could see a set of widely spaced, two-foot swells coming our way out of the northeast. The distance between the crests seemed like about 20 or 30 yards. In my fogginess, I was wracking my brain to think what would cause these swells on this calm and windless night. I began to think that maybe there had been a localized earthquake that caused them, but a quick check of my mobile news feed shed no light on that theory.

After discussing the phenomenon with a very sleepy Debbie, I decided to bundle up with a blanket and sit on the lazarette for a while to watch and see if anything changed. For more than an hour, this line of swells kept coming, never varying in wave height or wavelength. Staring out across the water, I eventually relaxed a bit and decided to go back to bed, visions of tsunamis put to rest. But I was still curious, so the next day I did some research and discovered seiches, or standing waves peculiar to bounded bodies of water like Lake Tahoe.

I knew from listening to the news earlier that day that there were high winds predicted out over the Black Rock Desert – about 100 miles north of Lake Tahoe – as the Burning Man Festival was happening, and burners were advised to shelter from the blowing dust on the playa. Lake Tahoe is pretty big – about 22 miles long – but evidently the low pressure acted on the northeast end of Lake Tahoe and set up the standing wave known as a seiche. Here’s a beautiful video posted by The Dam Café of Tahoe City that captures the essence of Lake Tahoe’s seiches. Just knowing that the seiche phenomenon is a “thing” will help me rest a little easier.

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

Where There’s Smoke

On By David BranbyIn On The WaterLeave a comment

As a sailor and as a human being, I’m concerned that the world is warming and that climate and weather patterns are changing because of that warming. There; I’ve said it. Now, I’m as guilty as anyone of not always thinking about my own carbon footprint, but one of the reasons I’ve always been drawn to sailing is because of its relatively small (when practiced conscientiously) carbon footprint.

The recent smoke from the devastating California wildfires has got me thinking about climate change, and about our role in it, and what we can do to fix it. People have lost their lives, homes, property, kin, livestock, livelihoods, and pets from the wildfires. All I’ve lost is a few weeks of sailing at what is traditionally a postcard-perfect sailing site, Lake Tahoe. But the relentless march of carbon accumulation in the atmosphere and the ever-increasing high temperatures worldwide signal that it’s high time to act.

One thing I’ve noticed over the 32 years I’ve lived here is that the water is warmer in summer at Lake Tahoe. Just two weekends ago, I was swimming in 71-degree water off of D.L. Bliss State Park. Seventy-one degrees F. Compared to 1986 when I was hypothermic after a dip in late August, today’s temperatures seem downright balmy.

I work for a major research university, and many of the scientists there that I’ve spoken to are worried. More than one has told me that climate change is real, it’s here, and its effects are outpacing even the predictions in the movie An Inconvenient Truth. One scientist told me that what’s concerning to him is that we have no models to predict what Earth’s weather will be like if our planet had ice-free poles. Think about that for a moment.

Lake Tahoe is warming at an alarming rate. In July of 2017, the average lake temperature for that month reached an all-time high of 68.4 degrees F. –  a full six degrees warmer than the July 2016 average. This data is from U.C. Davis scientist Dr. Geoffrey Schladow’s work at the Tahoe Environmental Research Center.

California’s wildfires are more explosive this year because of the drying effect warmer temperatures have had on forest and grassland fuels. That sucks for the people whose lives, homes, and property are endangered; it sucks for the massive state and federal resources (read: money) required to fight fires; and it sucks for sailors and citizens who enjoy the great outdoors or even their own back yards. Heaven help the folks who live on coral atolls, or low-lying coastal areas, like the islands in the Chesapeake Bay.

Bloomberg and NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies have done an amazing job with infographics that chart the rise of greenhouses gases and the corresponding rise in global temperatures. They also look at other possible factors. In the end, it’s the carbon and methane. And it’s pretty sobering.

So, what’s a sailor or a citizen to do? There are a few things we can do: reduce our fossil fuel use. Switch to solar or wind power. Consider eating less meat. Add to the insulation in our homes. And urge our representatives to join the Kyoto Protocol and enact policies that hasten our transition to renewables. Once installed, solar and wind power plants can produce low-carbon energy for decades. As these technologies scale up, prices are converging to the point that solar and wind power is becoming cheaper than fossil fuels, and battery technologies like those produced by Tesla are helping to mitigate the storage problem.

There’s warming and smoke everywhere. It’s clearly time for the U.S. – and for each of us, individually – to lead by example, and work to put out the fire.

Fair winds and smooth sailing. DB

What boat is that?

On By David BranbyIn Food & Drink, On The Water, Ports Of Call, Splendido2 Comments

Last season, Debbie and I were boat camping off of Sugar Pine State Park on Tahoe’s west shore one day when an elegant couple aboard a beautiful gray-hulled Beneteau pulled alongside, asking if we were part of the Tahoe Windjammers Yacht Club. We replied that we weren’t, and off they sailed.

For months afterwards, we wondered what length and model that beautiful boat was. This summer, after one particularly uncomfortable, sleepless night where we both became claustrophobic in Splendido’s modest sleeping berth, our conversation turned to the idea of exploring what having a larger boat – with larger sleeping quarters – might look like.

“Well, let’s figure out what model that good-looking Beneteau is, and we’ll start there.” I offered, feeling guilty for even broaching the topic, as we have worked so hard on and just adore our own lovely Splendido. Soon, however, Debbie and I were surfing the internet trying to find an image of a gray-hulled Beneteau. After a little Googling, Debbie found a photo of it sailing on Lake Tahoe on the Tahoe Windjammers website, so I contacted the Windjammers to see if they could tell me what length and model it was. After a laughably difficult email exchange with the Windjammers’ web guy – who I suspect thought I was a web scammer – I got an email from the Beneteau’s owners, Leon and Patricia Malmed.

Leon, an engineer who had a very successful career in Silicon Valley and who is also a Holocaust survivor and published author, said the boat was a 2013 Beneteau Oceanis 34, and graciously invited us to visit sometime to take a look at their boat, Mon Amour.

Because the smoke on Tahoe from the terrible California wildfires had shut down our sailing for nearly a month, we were happy to drive to the south shore to indulge our curiosity. Although we had hardly met, Patricia and Leon welcomed us with open arms, and surprised us with a sail aboard Mon Amour. She proved to be a sweet sailer with a striking black North 3DL headsail, beautiful on deck as well as below.

We spent a delightful afternoon talking about sailboats, Lake Tahoe, and life, and it was a superb pleasure getting to know these lovely people. After docking and chatting a bit more, we bought one of Leon’s wonderful books and parted, enriched by the experience and the rare gift to spend time with our new-found sailing friends.

Afterwards, Debbie and I drove along the west shore to Tahoe City and capped a great day by stopping at Wolfdale’s for their amazing smoked trout, Caesar salads, and drinks. We got to chat with Chef Douglas Dale briefly to congratulate him on 40 years in business before we headed down the hill and home again.

Fair winds and smooth sailing. DB

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