Last sail of 2006

Departure: 11:30 am
Return: 4:10pm
Weather conditions: Partly Cloudy, hazy, slight breezes
Tide: High to low
Boat: Blue Club Boat
Crew: 5 (Woody, Aubrey-Anne, Robert, Gabby & Rob)

I think sometimes my entries run a little long - probably because I wish the experiences were grander and more exciting (to others) than they are. I'll try to keep this one shorter.

As a member of the Gig Harbor Sailing club, I get 4 free days to use the club boats each year. A year sounds like a long time, but it's really not. With school for the children, long winters and work we mostly sail on the weekends. That gives 52 weekends, and once you factor in our long winters, it's much less than that. I guess what I'm leading up to is that I had one day left that I needed to use before the end of the calendar year. "Free" + "Sailing" = "There's no way I'm going to let that go!!!" I planned to use my last free day on the last day of the year which happened to be a Saturday.

I think you readers have caught on by now that you can't plan a good sail because you just don't know what the weather is going to be like. Take this last sail for example. The weather turned out to be very calm. Very light, to no winds to start with, followed by some light breezes, followed by more extremely light winds. The word excitement, didn't really come up while we were out. But, the words pleasant, enjoyable and relaxing did.

The entire family was invited, but only Aubrey-Anne wanted to go. For some reason I don't understand, I can't stand to have an empty boat. I called a couple of friends and invited them to come along. Robert and his daughter Gabby came, and later in the day my friend Rob (yes, a Rob and Robert) joined us as well.

I'm realizing that kids don't last long on a boat. They get bored. Aubrey-Anne and Gabby did well for a while but by the end they were ready to be done. Aubrey-Anne was a real trooper though. She makes a good sailor.

Destination-wise, we sailed around outside the harbor near point defiance.

The day had a surreal quality to it because of the haze and dim light of the sun. It helped make up for the lack of wind. We saw a couple of seals and one sea lion.

That's about it. Tune in next week after I go on the January club sail.