Friends, food, fun

The weather improved enough on this day to take a run out around the coastline with two friends of mine. The wind was light and occasionally would just fade away. A nice day for a leisurely sail.

 All systems check. Motor running, were all set. Set up time has been reduced to about 20 minutes from the time I enter the marina area to hull wet and motor running. Bungee cords around the rigging as i disassemble keep everything where it should.

 Adrian really hates this, I can tell. Like me, he simply likes being on the water, no mater the conditions. though today its ideal. The wind came out of the south west and was a steady 10+ knots. Comfortable.

 The improved gaff jaws let the gaff be raised ans set much easier and put less strain on the mast ant the point where they meet. The lazy jacks keep the sails where they need to be when I'm taking them down.

 We headed out to the Bacon cove area where the wind was best and the scenery better. Just a few miles past the bluff in the picture. The GPS is tracking us at about 4.5 knots beating into the wind.

 Once we passed the bluff, well, the wind died. what to do? break out some food. We started the day light with coffee and donuts, but moved onto coffee, tea buns (care of Bills mom), and sandwiches. Yeah life can truly be terrible..  I kid.

 Adrian had no trouble horking down tea buns as we chatted waiting for the wind to return, but no rush. We just sat back relaxed and listened to the radio.

 Bill shown here has a simple philosophy, "Friends, food, and fun" And This years events in his life and Career, has strained that some, but he's back in full form enjoying life again. Great to see you living back on the rock buddy! i'm sure theres more sailings on the horizon.

 Bacon cove had a fairly large population at some time to be able to construct and populate such a large church. Days long gone.

 We dropped sail and motored to a cove for lunch. I never took a picture of the chuck box in action. cooking up a feed of beans, bacon and loads of coffee. I'll remember the next time.

 From far off the whaler don't look like much but as you get closer, you can see that it is quite large.

The days winds improved to speeds I figure I would need to reef to manage, but with the mass of us three, we sailed white knuckled. With spray over rail no camera was out to record the afternoon, but we can vouch that we honestly reached 7.1 knots on my GPS even with all our gear aboard. A fine day to enjoy a good wind.
Note to self: I must acquire a waterproof digital camera for my trips.