Finally, a little sailing ...

It seems this winter the tides have been extreme and when they have been good the weather has been lousy, with fronts coming through.  Additionally, we've both been busy, me playing music every Monday until the 1st of April with the "Coast Connection" rock/blues/country band, holding Wednesday afternoon jazz rehearsals, and going to yacht club membership committee meetings; both of us going to fishing club meetings on Thursday afternoons and Dragon Boat paddling practices on Wednesday mornings and Saturday mornings.  So, we haven't gotten in much sailing. 

But the weather was so nice and the tides cooperative in late February, that we adjusted our schedule to get out on the water.  The first day, a Thursday, after filling up on diesel, we took Alizee out on a high tide and anchored around 15:00 just outside the entrance to the club.  We lowered the dinghy and motored back into the club at 16:00 for the fishing club meeting, then returned to the boat and fixed ourselves dinner and watched the sunset. 

The next morning we went for a good sail, and along the way through out our trolling line and caught four Spanish mackerel (a story we told on the new fishing blog that Penelope created for our fishing club).  Because we were scheduled for Dragon Boat practice Saturday morning, we just sailed back and anchored again outside the club on Friday evening.  We were too tired to cook up the mackerel, but enjoyed cocktails, the sunset and a dinner that we'd prepared ahead for our little trip.  Next morning, we dinghied into the club for paddling practice.  The engine on the dinghy started missing and was hard to start, a problem which I attribute to old gasoline ... that gas has now been burnt up in my car, but I've not yet given the once over to the dinghy motor.

After paddling, we got back out to the boat, and we set sail for the Myaka River, due west of the club, where we found a nice, quiet anchorage for the night.  Very peaceful, and we awakened the next morning enveloped in fog, two sleepy pelicans floating just off our beam and taking absolutely no notice of us.  Gradually, we heard early morning fishing skiffs feeling their way through the foggy mist, and when it finally lifted, we hoisted sail, weighed anchor and slowly (because there was very little wind) made our way back to our berth at the yacht club. 

This is, of course, being written a while after the fact, and we are sad to report that we've not been out for more than a day sail since.