Tag: messing about in boats

On the hunt for a buoy at Tahoe

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning3 Comments

Lake Tahoe remains one of the priciest places to moor a boat on a buoy in the U.S., with prices in the $1,500 range at the south shore to upwards of $8,000 for the five-month season as you clock around to the north shore. (The cost for slips in marinas is just staggering for working stiffs like me, so I won’t even go there.) For many years, we have been fortunate to have found a great mooring situation with a private resident on the west shore, but now our wonderful “buoy lord” is selling the family homestead, so we’re on the hunt once again to be able to sail in 2022.

I’m optimistic that something will pop up. I have an ad up on Craigslist seeking a buoy, and I’m tapping my sailing network to see if anyone knows anyone offering a buoy for rent at Tahoe this summer. The influx of remote workers from the Bay Area and inflation in general have driven up prices, and I don’t blame homeowners for asking what the market will bear. My fear, of course, is that we’ll be priced out and have to find somewhere new to sail … not a prospect I relish, let me tell you.

This spring, we’re having the standing rigging replaced down at Obexer’s, and Splendido is buttoned up tight under her shrink-wrap coat, waiting for spring to truly arrive. It snowed yesterday, with winds in the 45-60 range, so we’re not quite there, weather-wise. I’m starting to get excited about sailing once again, though it’s tempered by a bit of anxiety with this new wrinkle. But I believe everything will work out … fingers crossed. If you hear of anything, let me know.

Fair winds and smooth sailing. DB

A break in the smoke, a sail and a splash

On By David BranbyIn On The Water, SplendidoLeave a comment

My uncle Ken Holland was a crab fisherman in the Bering Sea from the early 1960s through the 1980s. He always told me that in fishing, you “plan for the worst and hope for the best.” That’s this sailing season in a nutshell. We got lucky and got a mooring buoy in June, got a few sails in, and then the Dixie Fire and then the Caldor Fire hit, blanketing the lake and nearly our whole state of Nevada in thick smoke. At our home in Reno, we saw air quality indexes over 300, and closer to the fires, we saw numbers in the 400s, 500s and even 700 for a brief period. Today, after nearly a month of not sailing, I saw a break in the smoke with some westerly winds hitting around 4 p.m., so I rocketed up to the lake and found our beautiful Splendido covered in ash—inside as well as out.

I primed the Perkins, fired her up, and headed out to the nearly empty lake. Out past the wind shadow of the west shore, I picked up some nice breezes that went as high as 21 knots and blasted northward at 6.2 knots til the gusts softened. I tacked near Sunnyside and blasted back down toward McKinney Bay, catching the Blackwood Canyon winds and putting Splendido through her paces. I was hoping the strong breeze would blow away all of the ash, but alas, our beautiful girl still needs a good vacuum and a scrub, which I’ll be happy to do another day.

As the sun set in the west at about 7:20 p.m., I got her back on the hook and buttoned her up as the pink glow settled over Tahoe. I’ve been filming a bit on my GoPro, so I decided to take a plunge with the camera. The photo above is a frame from that very refreshing splash over the side. I’m keen to milk every last bit of sailing out of what remains of our summer here at 6,223 ft. above sea level, and praying for cooler temperatures and lots of rain to quench all the fires.

Fair winds and smooth sailing. DB

Splashin’ around the old sailing grounds

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

Debbie and I headed out on Saturday, July 17 to visit Calawee Cove at D.L. Bliss State Park and Sugar Pine State Park on the way back. On our way down south, we encountered (yet again) a couple of SUP paddlers about two miles offshore with rising winds. We hailed them to make sure they were OK, and asked if they were fatigued, as we’re always happy to pick folks up so we don’t have to read about them in the papers the next day. They said they were fine but a bit lost, so we pointed out Bliss, Meek’s and Sugar Pine to help orient them, and pulled in the mainsheet to get underway again.

We threw down the hook in 15 feet of water at D.L. Bliss, which was (predicably) a parking lot of speedboats on this warm afternoon.

Debbie made some sandwiches and I poured her a glass of wine, and we sat out under our instant sunshade for a couple of hours, watching the neighboring boats and merrymakers having fun.

I had the binoculars out and was keeping an eye on the paddleboarders we’d met earlier. After about 2-1/2 hours, they came straggling in to the beach, safe and sound.

To the southeast, the Tamarack Fire began sending up a new plume of white and gray smoke, and we knew that eventually that smoke would cover the lake. We decided to weigh anchor and head north, so I moved the traveler to port and we sailed on a bowline up to the south end of Sugar Pine, where we dropped the hook in about eight feet of water. The crowds were thinning out and the wind was tailing off, so I took the opportunity to replace three busted sail-slides on the lower mainsail. Evidently, the winter and long layup had made them fragile, so it was well worth the effort. Afterward, I took a quick plunge to cool off, and finally felt like summer sailing season had begun in earnest.
Our “secret” cove on the south end of Sugar Pine State Park.

Fair winds and smooth sailing! DB

Sneaking up for a sail after work

On By David BranbyIn On The Water, SplendidoLeave a comment

I start my open-water scuba course this weekend, so I wanted to sneak in a sail with Debbie before classes start. Last night, Debbie picked me up after work and we zipped up to Splendido for a balmy evening’s sail around McKinney Bay. Winds were in the 11-17 knot range becoming light, so we had a fun sail and were just able to ghost back to the mooring buoy, where we caught the hook on the last puff of the evening and didn’t have to turn on the engine.

It is supposed to be hella hot here over the next four days (102-106 in Reno, about 10-12 degrees cooler in Tahoe), so we were eager to escape the heat before the weekend starts. I’ll be sailing a lot next week (summer break for me), so we’ll try to find some adventures and hopefully some good photos to post.

Fair winds and following seas. DB

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

Getting the old girl ready to splash

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Keeping Up Appearances, Splendido1 Comment

Life is what happens while you’re making other plans. 😀 I had all but despaired of not being able to sail this summer because the influx of folks at Tahoe during the pandemic meant that buoys were scarce, and competition for them was fierce. After putting out feelers for buoys since February with zero results, Debbie and I had begun making plans to do other things—road trips to rural Nevada, hiking, biking, etc.—in lieu of sailing. Last Saturday, out of the blue, our old buoy owner reached out to say his neighbor had a buoy for rent, just 40 yards from where we’ve been moored for the past few years.

Now, the push is on to get the boat ready for launching next week. Fingers crossed—she is dusty and dirty and I have a list of 36 pre-sailing checks to do. I’ll shoot a little video to try to capture the fun.

I cannot express how excited I am to get out on the water again.

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

Final Touches for a 2019 Launch

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning, Keeping Up Appearances, SplendidoLeave a comment

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Lane Walker – the master – at work.

We’ve had a rainier and stormier spring this year, which led to my cancelling our mid-May launch of Splendido and gave me a little more time to get her ready this year. My buddy Jamie helped me change the tires on the trailer, polish her up and put a nice coat of wax on so our 26-year old girl can shine.

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I messed up our logo when doing some gel coat repairs.

I noticed a few small chips in the gel coat this spring, likely caused by small rocks thrown up during trailering the boat down from Tahoe, so I tried my hand at gel coat repair this year. After watching a couple of YouTube™ videos, I mustered the courage to start, and found it to be a pretty interesting process – and all in all, easier than I had anticipated. One of the side effects, though, was that when I removed the protective blue painter’s tape I had placed around my gel coat repairs, I inadvertently took off some of the hand-lettering paint that my good friend Lane Walker of Solo Signs had put on about eight years ago.

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Lane Walker to the rescue.

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The man is a magician when it comes to sign painting and hand-lettering work.

In my eyes, Lane Walker is a living legend in the art of pinstriping and hand-lettering. I met him about 30 years ago when I worked for Harrah’s corporate advertising department and he worked for an outfit called Silver Dollar Signs hand-painting casino showcards and signage. After Silver Dollar closed its doors, Lane struck out on his own with Solo Signs, and has a bustling practice painting long-haul trucks and doing custom designs and pinstriping work for hotrodders, custom motorcycle embellishments, and all manner of hand-painted restoration projects.

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Perfect color matching by eye.

Watching Lane work is a joy. He hand-mixes and matches colors before your very eyes, and the accuracy is uncanny. He explained to me his collection of brushes made from the hairs of a particular Russian squirrel, and the virtues of now-banned lead paint, which flowed like a dream off his brushes and “wore like iron,” in contrast to today’s differently formulated paints.

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Lane Walker, the legend.

In about 45 minutes, Lane restored Splendido’s logo to like-new, and a quick polish and coat of wax will make her ready for launching.

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Jamie helping swap the tires on the trailer.

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Ready for launching at Obexer’s Lake Tahoe.

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Post-launch lunch at The Bridgetender in Tahoe City with Tracy Hieber.

We splashed the boat on June 21st and the launch went fine, although writing this a day after, I am sore and tired from the effort. I am grateful to Lane and Jamie and Debbie and Tracy and the folks at Obexer’s for all their help, and looking forward to sailing with all of them on the great sheet of blue water called Lake Tahoe.

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