Who Wants Crew March 26 on the Bay?

C'mon, you Bay Area blowhards! Let's go sailing. We'll be coming home to the City by the Bay the weekend of March 26-27.

We get into town Friday night and Kris goes to work on Sunday. I, however, will be a kept man, ready to sail at a moment's notice, Saturday through Monday. Then, back to Portland on Tuesday morning.

And for you Rob Me Please fans, my house will not be empty. There is a dog, two cats, and a virtual herd of attack-trained pygmy goats!

Plus, my daughter is staying there.

Squirrely Ride

I managed to launch the dinghy and get in an hour+ of sailing on Sunday, part of it with my friend Alton.

Not sure when, who, or if anyone would show to sail, I launched and sailed myself downriver, downwind. I made a turn and began tacking back into the West and Southwest winds, to the clubhouse. Yeah, winds. It was squirrely and shifty out there.

I had to throw in a couple of extra tacks to set myself up in a spot that would allow the Portland Spirit to pass through the channel without my needing to head that way. The Spirit is a 150' yacht that cruises up and down the river with pleasure seekers, or something. Needless to say, in our small river with a restricted channel, they get right-of-way.

When I got back to the dock, Alton was around. I let him know the conditions were weird and he was still game, so away we went.

We tacked upriver, crossing from side to side and even doing some depth checks with my centerboard on the rocks just upriver from the Willamette Park boat launch. The rocks are still there and they still make the centerboard jump when you sail over them.

At some point close to the Sellwood bridge the spring chinook fleet got too immense and densely packed to attempt tacking amongst, so we tacked to port and fell off for a downwind run with only two accidental gybes.

Being spring, the conditions were variable, winds gusting to 15 kts at times and dying off to a very light 2-4 at other times. We had a couple of thrilling short runs, both of us up on the rail, working hard to flatten the sails out. Of course, moments later we would be back down in the cockpit, letting out more sheet to try and find the right sail shape for the lighter stuff.

After putting the boat away, we made a quick run to Zupans, loaded up on lagers, a couple of sandwiches, some chips, and took seats up on the cliff, where we watched the Laser fleet play tag around the marks in their Sunday afternoon Winter Racing Series. Lots of banging at the turns!

Time to Sail!

L & C needs a little TLC. The sun is threatening to shine this weekend. Maybe Sunday for some sailing?

Typealyzer

I ran this one through Typealyzer and here's the result:

ESFP - The Performers

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

Funnily enough, I also ran Log of the S/V Clarity through and got a different result:

ISFP - The Artists

The gentle and compassionate type. They are especially attuned their inner values and what other people need. They are not friends of many words and tend to take the worries of the world on their shoulders. They tend to follow the path of least resistance and have to look out not to be taken advantage of.

They often prefer working quietly, behind the scene as a part of a team. They tend to value their friends and family above what they do for a living.

Back in Black

The mysterious orbs are back, but they're black. And they aren't really that mysterious anymore. Apparently, the cleaning service comes around seven in the morning and rolls the tables out on the dock.

Just checking ...

Sometimes my dinghy goes without me. Not today ... so far.

Pitchers, Disks, Spiders, and Leather

Some pictures for you. The giant spider disappeared not long after this picture was taken. The group of trees it is standing on (on it's head), are on Ross Island. I suspect she will reemerge in the summer and make another appearance.

My wife has been recruited by the sailing club to help fight her off; mostly because my wife has a power-washer. Make no mistake, my friends, it IS her power-washer. She loves the power tools.

Ahem.

This next picture was one I grabbed off the club camera early one morning and was never able to figure out was going on with those big disks. Anybody want to speculate about Roswell, et.al? I wasn't feeling very creative that day, so never did anything with this one.

And then there is this little vixen. Kris bought the same jacket and occasionally wears it the same way, but only at home. I put this picture in here so you wouldn't be pissed at me for wasting your time with this post.