Weekend sail...

Went to the marina on Saturday with the kids for a lil afternoon sail. Had the boat reserved from noon til 4pm. Sat and waited for the folks who had it that morning as they were about 15 minutes late. Another checkbox in the Get My Own Boat column... Anyway, we headed out and sat in the middle of the bay trying to find some wind, weather guys said it was a steady 7mph. My, they were very optimistic. So after an hour we decided to head in, maybe Sunday would be better.

Sunday morning my friend Bob called and confirmed that he and his two kids would be joining the 3 of us for sailing that day. Headed out to the marina, the forecast was for about 8-12 that day. No worries on anyone having the boat that morning so we were able to get right to loading up and heading out. Wind was OK, about 6-7 as we headed out in to Gideon Bay.

Raised the main sail, rolled out the jib and we were off! Holding steady but not setting any records. Which isn't a bad way to start the day. Crossed the point on the east side of the bay and finally picked up some good wind. We had been doing a few tacks to work our way out of the bay and head northeast up the length of the lake.

Then the wind picked up nicely to about 10. Sails were trimmed in a bit so we had them powered up good and we were making great headway. It took us about 15 minutes to go as far as we went in an hour the day before. My daughter Sam and Bob's daughter Mia planted themselves up on the bow. I dunno, must be a girl thing... and us guys, myself, Bob, my son Stu and Bob's son Trent were back in the cockpit running the show.

We spent the day tacking back and forth, east and west across the main part of the lake. The J-boat fleet from I think Wayzata Yacht Club came out for racing. That was a sight to see, 30 or so sailboats so close together, maybe more. We were going along quite nicely, avoding power boats. We did catch a few wakes and one time almost buried the bow in a wave. Which was actually quite fun. We averaged about 5-8 degrees of heel though, some times we were at 15 and once for a bit we caught a nice gust and we put over to about 22. That got everyone's attention. Stu and Trent were helping crew the boat as I skippered and Bob was somehow in charge of refreshments. Not sure how that happened but it worked well, though he could've brought a couple more Spaten's.

So after about 3 hours we headed back in, the wind stayed good and we were able to head back on a nice close reach that became a beam reach as we headed back in to the bay to drop the sails and motor in to the slip. All in all it was a great day of sailing and I am looking forward to many more to come.

Just need to find "the boat" and we can sail all we want, whenever we want.....