Summer date

Departure: 3:30pm Sat 8/12/2006
Return: 7:30pm
Weather conditions: Clear skies and steady breeze (10mph?)
Tide: flood (from 2' to 12')
Boat: 'Red' Club Boat
Crew: 4 (Woody, Monica, Rob, Michell, Garrick & Elena)

We had a very pleasant date night on Saturday. We finally did something we'd been talking about doing for a long time. We invited several of our friends to go sailing with us - without the kids. I didn't realize it until we were out there, but this was the second time Monica had ever been out sailing without the kids, and the first time with friends. It was a lot of fun.


The weather was about as perfect as it can get. It was Washington warm (meaning we had to wear jackets while on the water), and breezy. The tidal currents were strong, but my recent experience on Monday ( see previous post) had prepared me for what to do. We immediately headed up Colvos passage to get out of the strong currents. On the way, we saw the Davidsons at their beach. It's always fun to see someone you know when out and about.


After sailing past their beach, we hove-to and had a wonderful picnic on the boat. We feasted on a tasty cheese/meat pie, some beef wraps, fried chicken, melon, cherries, soda, candy bars, and some tasty home-made lime bars. We probably could have ate and chatted the entire time, but we were there to sail. After cleaning up, we trimmed the sails and were off again. We had drifted south a bit so
we continued on toward Point Defiance, then back across towards Gig Harbor. The wind gave out briefly just as we were entering the harbor. It wasn't completely gone, but with all the traffic, I felt uncomfortable trying to tack into the harbor so we motored in. We got a couple more tacks in before we had to put the sails away and motor home. It was a shame to quit with at least 40 minutes of good sailing left, but our time was up. I've included the photos the tide when we left and the tide when we came back to show the difference.