Tag: walker bay dinghy

Sailing Tahoe With Phil Campbell

On By David BranbyIn On The Water, Splendido1 Comment

ImageI had a great time sailing last Thursday with Phil Campbell, owner of Lawn Ranger (Legendary Yard Care!). I hadn’t seen Phil in a few months, as he’s super busy during the spring and summer. I met Phil about five years ago when he worked in sales for Integra Telecom. We just kind of hit it off, and it turned out that Phil actually has a very interesting life story. In his early twenties, he ran away and joined the circus—literally! The thing is, Phil is this amazingly gifted musician—he plays trumpet and piano—and he was hired by the Ringling Bros./Barnum & Bailey Circus to play in the band! So, for 10 years, Phil lived on the train with the lions and tigers and bears (oh, my!), chugging from town to town, and organizing a few local musicians at every whistle-stop to play with the circus while it was in town. Phil’s got some great stories from his life as a traveling musician, and I just enjoy being around the guy. Being a bit of an amateur guitar player myself, Phil and I will get together and butcher the best of the Beatles, Dire Straits, Van Morrison, and anything else we can think up and try to play together. Actually, Phil always sounds great—he’s one of those perfect-pitch musical types who can hear a song once and play it note for note. Me, on the other hand, well…let’s just say I’ve got about 10,000 more hours of practice to achieve any level of mastery. But we have fun, and lots of it.

ImageBut back to the sailing. Both Phil and I are 200+ lb. guys, so rowing out to Splendido was a bit of a comedy act in our 8′ Walker Bay dinghy. But, with catlike grace and athleticism, we managed to lumber aboard without getting wet. I walked the dinghy forward and tied it off on the buoy and cast us free, where some gentle afternoon breezes took us easily out over toward Chambers Landing. We gobbled up some Subway sandwiches and talked, talked, talked…and then the wind died. Completely. So, we just sort of bobbed around the bay for an hour or so and talked some more, while the sails hung lank and Tahoe began to take on its telltale pinkish hue as the sun got lower and lower. Finally, I turned on the motor and we started back…and the wind picked up! So we had “bookend” winds on this particular outing. They actually picked up pretty good, to the point where we were getting over 5 knots on the gauge and a bit of a heel, too. I made a complete hash of flaking the sail as we drew near to the buoy, so I had Phil make a big circle, which gave me time to tidy things up a bit and dive below for the boat hook. By this time, Phil was an “old hand” with the wheel and throttle, and we made our approach. Phil steered us perfectly to the buoy, then gently hit reverse to stop the boat. I got the mooring line on the first try. It was awesome. Looking forward to more music and sailing magic with Phil in the future!

Fair winds and smooth sailing. DB

Loading In & Fitting Out

On By David BranbyIn Commissioning & De-commissioning1 Comment

load-in

Last Saturday (June 8th), Debbie was out of town so I rose early and took care of all my “honey-dos” so I could get up to the lake and load Splendido with the cushions, housewares, sheets, blankets, and fleece stuff to keep everybody comfortable out on the water. I borrowed Debbie’s “princess van” from The Cheese Board and loaded up all the stuff that was in our garage (after rinsing and drying everything…amazing how dusty everything got sitting in the garage for over a year). One thing I’m really grateful for is the neat set-up we were able to find renting a private buoy near Hurricane Bay. The folks we rented from have access to a private pier with a passcode that is a straight shot from where you can park. It was actually an easier load-in than when we were at the marina before.

The day was not without incident. When I rowed the Walker Bay dinghy out to Splendido, I almost swamped it. What a damn tippy thing that dinghy is! I was holding onto the swim ladder on the sailboat and made a move to step from the dinghy to the sailboat, and under went the gunwale and filled the dinghy about four inches deep in the startling brief amount of time it took me to sit back down. (That’s one reason why I wear a life preserver even when rowing out.) After a few deep breaths, I was able to safely step on to Splendido and get her ready to take over to the pier.

The whole “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats” quote from Wind in the Willows is wonderfully true. Even though it took four or five hours to load in and stow all the stuff, the time flew by. Some of the local residents stopped by for a bracing plunge off the pier (the water temp was 64 degrees) and we’d end up chatting about life at Tahoe and how beautiful it is. I took three plunges myself over the course of the day…I’m a bit of a polar bear anyway, and the water was a great way to cool off.

After getting everything aboard (though not stowed…a lot of the stowing of the household items is a bit of a mystery to me; I don’t know where Debbie puts it or seems to make it disappear until needed (there’s not that much storage on a Catalina 270, frankly)), I motored back over to the buoy and put her on the hook. I turned on the cabin lights and the anchor light, then rowed in to go find something to eat after a long day. I ended up going to Westside Pizza (nice folks there), downed a personal pizza and some big glasses of water, then headed back. It was a bit eerie rowing out in the dark, but I managed without incident and then decided to try sleeping up front in the V-berth. I’d like to say I fell asleep instantly (I was that tired) but it took a while to get used to the boat bumping up against the buoy (boom!) or hearing the dinghy touch up against the hull at the other end (a more muffled boom).

Morning Aboard

When I woke up, I was a bit appalled at the mess of stuff that still needed to be stowed, but my craving for hot coffee (the one thing I forgot to plan ahead for) inspired me to fire her up and head about a mile north to Sunnyside in search of java. The lake was like a millpond, and the early-morning beauty as I motored along at 3.8 knots was thrilling. I tied up at Sunnyside, but there was no coffee to be had, so they directed me to stroll across the street to the Fire Sign café, where I had three cups and a bagel with cream cheese. The nice receptionist gal at Sunnyside said I could come up anytime for an end-tie on their public dock and step in for lunch. I’m planning on it!

june-9-13
Fair winds and smooth sailing, DB