The Boate

emerald green

And now there came both mist and snow, And it grew wondrous cold : And ice, mast-high, came floating by, As green as emerald. rime of the ancient mariner - coleridge

it was pretty cold at the berkeley marina, but once i sailed past the breakwater (solo again today), the sun was shining and things warmed up enough to take off the jacket, pull out the guitar and do some serious multi-tasking, steering with my legs and entertaining the seabirds. when i raised the jib, the shackle broke at the tack of the sail, so i heaved to and improvised with another shackle. around 4, i found myself at the northeastern opening of raccoon strait and i knew that if i didn't chase the sun out of the shadow of angel island on the way back to berkeley, my life was going to be VERY cold for the next couple hours. i was joined near the immigration station by a group of seals out for dinner. luckily i was dressed warmly, with a down jacket over my favorite moth-tattered irish knit sweater, and sheepskin gloves, because when the sun finally did set, i could vivdlly imagine that wind from the north flowing over the mariner's emerald green ice on its way to me and the boate. i got in well after dark. more pictures are here.

pocket dreaming

steen gave me the pocket version of sailing alone around the world, (i particularly like ransome's recommendation that "boys who do not like this book ought to be drowned at once"). it makes for excellent reading immediately before retiring, a favorite embarkation point for the land of nod. i had it in my pocket when i solo captained this week as well. it appears i will be doing more solo journeys, as captain steen has announced his retirement from sailing. something of a pity, methinks. perhaps a new co-captain will hear the call of the wind and the sea.

captain solo

i had never single-handedly sailed before today. oh sure, on small boats. but never a 26' coronado like the boate. i had a little apprehension and fear going into it. but fear is lame. the next thing i know, i am in between alcatraz and angel island near sunset, graciously accepting a short, self-congratulatory statement made by...me. it was actually really cool. the sailing of course. i made up that part about the statement.

particulate fireball

it was a particularly unhealthful air quality day in the bay area, and because of particulates rather than ozone. but it sure made for a pretty sunset! thank you, diesel engines!

regatta d' saturday

every time two sail boats are headed in roughly the same direction, there is a race afoot in at least one skipper's mind. today, out with minjung and dan, we joined in the race for a bit, ran perpendicular to it, and otherwise took in the spectacle of more beautiful multi-colored spinnakers and gennakers than i have seen on the bay in quite some months.

another tasty day

yesterday

cruised along the city at sunset, around alcatraz, and back. i am glad that i escaped all the optimistic exit polls during the day, and had a nice, peaceful, quiet day on the water.

back on the bay

phil and i were "tuning the rig", i.e. adjusting the tension on the stays, for about the first hour of a perfect day out. the rest of the time was spent observing how purely tastefully the boate was handling, and how absolutely uncontrollably beautiful it was on the water. the new spreaders look awesome, as do the new lines. phil couldn't stop leaning forward from the forestay and singing "her name is rio and she's hungry like the wolves".