Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Sail magazine feature...

Last year Deborah and I had a bit of an adventure on a day sail over to Sam's Anchor Cafe in Tiburon, which I reported in Spindrift's general log (September 18-19). I decided to write it up and send it into Sail Magazine.

Lo and behold, Charles Mason, the editor, liked it, and after going through a couple of revisions with it - which always takes a few months - here it is in the March issue of Sail.


Unfortunately, it's not on line, so you'll just have to rush out and get one at the newstand! Or click on each page below for somewhat readable images.


Friday, February 23, 2007

SFGate bloggers meet...

About six months ago, SFGate, the on-line arm of the San Francisco Chronicle, invited about twenty bay area bloggers to launch its community blog project. I was among them and, under the screen name Spindrift, started a blog entitled "Messing about on boats...," which I hope readers here will find worthwhile.

Last night many of us met, most for the first time, over tapas and beer at The Thirsty Bear next to the Moscone Center in San Francisco. We quickly discovered that we all love the bay area, and we're looking forward to adding to its richness through our blogs.




(l-r) Peter Negulescu, Vice President, Digital Media, SFGate; Dotty "Greendogdemo" LeMieux, "Boomer Bites"; Suzanne Gold, "Practical Spirituality"; Kathy Delany, "Goody Bag"









(l-r) Jon Winston, "Bike Escape on the Gate"; Clinton Fein, "Pointing Fingers"; Jean Taggert, "My View from the Hill"; Tom Carter, "Tenderloin Beat"









(l-r) Peter Negulescu; Keith Thompson, "Sane Nation"; Trace Cohen, Community Blogs Coordinator, SFGate; Kathy Delaney; Jon Winston







Not pictured is lilybee, who writes "From the Lilypad," and Deborah Gordon of "Weapons of Mass Destruction."

Of course, not all the bloggers made it, and who could blame them - it was a rainy, cold evening. Absent were Nick "lordofballs" Graham, who writes "3 dots and a dash;" Ryan Kellet of "Class Act"; steveod of "Edublog," Stu "studancer" Smith, who writes "Baghdad by the Bay Burger Bible"; horns2k of "From Rags to Richmond"; the authors of "His words vs. Her words"; lyricalwords of "Holla at a Scholar!"; Kenneth Manning of "Mash Apropos"; Paul Barwick of "Paul's rants"; and the author of "Tech Expert."

See all of SFGate's Community Blogs.

Monday, February 19, 2007

An Encinal cruising party...

This weekend the EYC had its annual winter cruise-in to its own docks. The boat that travelled the shortest distance was Bastante, a Cal 29 belonging to past-club president Carol Blackburn and her husband Bill. They came about 500 yards from the club dock #1 to the guest docks. Most of the other boats came from Marina Village, about a half mile away, or from a couple of other marinas on the Oakland Estuary. The point, of course, is to spend the weekend partying at the clubhouse and then staggering down to your boat at night - it keeps us off the roads, which is a good thing.

Deborah I took friends out sailing on Saturday. My old friends Ruth and Neil came out from Long Island to visit their daughter Sarah, who's getting her Ph.D. at Berkeley, and her friend Andy. Sarah's been out with us once before on our Cal 39, but because Spindrift is still undergoing refit work, we squeezed all of us aboard Dog Days, our Islander Bahama 28.




It was great fun, and it turned out to be the sunniest and warmest day of February. So, although the winds were in their typical winter mode on the bay - very light - we had a lovely time.










We squeezed ourselves into the club guest dock at about 16:45, and welcomed Vallejo Yacht Club friends Bruce and Gail, who joined the rest of us for dinner and a special musical show at the club that night. Great fun, indeed!

Sunday morning was the cruiser's fizz party on the docks, a regular Sunday morning event at all our club cruises, and then, in anticipation of rain in the evening and on Monday, gradually all the cruisers shoved off for the arduous trips back to their respective marina slips. Bastante actually went farther than 500 yards, since Carol and Bill took her to an adjacent marina to pump out the head.

Perhaps we should have all stayed, since the storm clouds missed the bay, the rest of the day was lovely, and Monday - President's Day - turned out to be a cloudless day.

More photos