FlyGirl

Last Saturday (Aug 15, 2009) we took another sail on Serenity. It was a beautiful day with all kinds of weather --- from cold and 30+ kts winds in the slot, to sunny and hot with less than 5 kts winds behind Tiburon. We must have reefed and unreefed the sail more than 4 times... But regardless of what kind of weather one might like, it was a great day with good people and nice food. :-) The sail track is here.

I sailed on a Seawind 1160 with some friends (co-skippering with my friend Cheryl) on Saturday (8/8/2009) out of Sausalito. It was a great day and my first time going very far north (under the Richmond - San Rafael Bridge). To see the track of the sail click here. We have another sail on the same boat scheduled for this Saturday.

This past Friday, the day after Christmas 2008, I took my first charter out of Sausalito, CA. I chose Zara, a Beneteau 311, for a few reasons -- I had sailed other Beneteaus before and I assumed this would be similar and it was a boat that Cheryl, on of my crew for the day, had never been on. Cheryl has sailed out of Sausalito many times and this allowed her to make comparisons to other boats for me as well as for herself.

Anyhow, after some trouble getting out of the dock (I need a little more practice, but no harm was done to anything), we spent a good deal of the day motoring -- winds were very light. And the currents were quite strong. When we were in the slot, it was clear that without the motor we'd be heading toward the gate no matter what direction we pointed.

We therefore decided to stay well within the gate and, in fact, mostly ended up doing a large clockwise circle around Angel Island. But, all in all, it was a good day and, as you can see here I enjoyed yet another day on the San Francisco Bay.

Just one week after BareBoat certification, I took it another step. I knew three of the people in the catamaran class (including the instructor who was my instructor for BBC) and so, given how much more fun it is to take classes with people you already know, I decided to take it.

Two more days on the north bay, including quite a wet one on Sunday, and I am now "Cruising Catamaran" certified. This, I believe, now qualifies me for catamaran charter for up to 50 feet.

These boats are interesting in that they are very roomy and hardly heel at all. Presumably they're a great boat to bring people on who are not sailors and who would freak out when a boat first heels (if you're a sailor, you've experienced them). :-)

Well, last weekend I got by Bare Boat Chartering certification which allows me to rent boats up to 50 ft in length.

This weekend, I am taking the Catamaran class so that I can take Modern Sailing's large cat. The nice thing about the cat is that it is a much more comfortable boat for non-sailors because it doesn't heel or rock as much. Many sailors feel that large cats aren't "real" sailboats but, like a friend of mine, I consider sailing to be, to a great extent, a social activity so, to some degree, I am willing to do what makes my friends/guests more comfortable and more interested in learning more about sailing.

Lots of people have been making Ron Paul videos and some of them have been quite good. You can see a lot of them here. But, to me, one stands out above the rest. (it was on this page but, unfortunately, it's been removed from YouTube).

It's probably not the best "conversion" video, since it doesn't spend a lot of its time directly *stating* Ron Pauls policies and philosophies, it mainly makes implications (though it does have a number of quotes from him). What it does do is invoke a lot of emotion and energy --- from me, at any rate.

I imagine if you are a Ron Paul supporter, you'll love it. If you're not, check out some of the other videos at the link above.

Obviously I am not keeping this blog up very often. Of course, it was set up mainly for me to fiddle with how to set up a blog and not because I thought I had much news on a frequent basis that anyone would be interested in.

Ah well...

My daughter and I are off to LA for the weekend to visit my brother and his wife. We haven't seen them since we "crossed paths" in New Jersey at my parents' summer home a few years ago.

My daughter had a wonderful time the last time that she got to hang out with my sister-in-law (a schoolteacher, by the way) and I know she is looking forward to doing so again.

Since I passed my checkride, I have chosen to join a club called BASA (licensed pilots only) and am in the process of getting checked out in their (our?) Grob 103. It's a multi day checkout, so I did part last week and will complete it on 8/11/07.

Whoo Hoo!!!

What a great 6 days it was.

I decided to get my glider rating in Truckee, CA... I spent 5 days there doing the "total immersion" technique of learning how to glider fly (i.e. I did little else for all those days). In order to get a commercial add-on, I had to get in 20 solo flights and, of course, do all the prep work for the oral as well as the actual flight check.

I passed my checkride and am now a licensed glider pilot!!!