Weekend Warriors

These early fall days are perfect for sailing lessons, especially when your school is in the Slot. Sunny mornings promise for moderate afternoon breezes and perpetually smiling faces. It’s always a surprise to hear students and club members complain about the ‘hot weather’. You get to experience these things first hand when you manage a sailing school. Thankfully, we’re winding down from those 25-knot days.

Unlike most sailors, I don’t have the weekends to play. My Fridays are like your Mondays, and Saturdays too. And my Sundays are like your Fridays. You wont hear any complaints from me, though. I enjoy uncrowded anchorages and can hike to Mt. Livermore Peak without passing another soul.

On really calm evenings, you can see the tide ebb and flood like a river the Bay wide without any interruption. I can sail into any dockside restaurant and have my choice of slips, and lunch happens without fuss or wait. There is a downside to all this though; the quiet anchorages prove that all your friends are at work!

Luckily for me, my partner Quincey has the same days off. Just this week, on a 70-degree Sunday, I came home for lunch to see that she had taped off, sanded, and varnished the companionway — without previously planning to do so. She exclaimed with calm satisfaction, "It was time, and I have time!"

This ambition is all in an effort to have and show absolute pride for Windrose, our 1976 Fuji 32, which is our home and travel companion. Not five minutes after I arrived, we untied the lines and headed for the haulout.

This ‘weekend’ (your Tuesday and Wednesday), we’ll be taping off, sanding, and painting her bottom. Come mid-October, we’ll take a long weekend — Monday through Friday for us — and head out the Gate.