Fran McKay

No exaggeration— along with beautiful blue skies and spinnakered (is that a word?) racing boats as a picturesque backdrop, we saw wind from the south, then northeast, then west-southwest, followed by north, northeast, and east, possibly more that I’ve forgotten in all that excitement. It was like a giant, delicious wind buffet today. So much fun!

Okay, I’ll say a little more: Beautiful weather with changeable wind that ranged from NNE to WSW, and occasionally disappeared entirely while apparently making up its mind where it would come from next. Wonderful way to spend a late-summer Friday afternoon, especially in such good company.

Our skipper, Fran, brought along her 2 daughters, we spotted ospreys and the first sea lion we’ve seen since late spring, and the Blue Angels flew over us —twice!— in formation en route to an air show. A thrilling day that also happened to include beautiful weather and near-perfect wind!

Aren’t they all??

We had a mini pre-celebration carrot cake for Fran’s birthday (which is tomorrow)— I guess I was enjoying it too much to think to get pictures. (That’s the birthday girl/skipper at the helm.) The wind was indeed all over the place today, both in direction and strength. Not exactly unusual, but hey, it keeps us on our toes. Gorgeous sunny day with Mt. Hood looking clearer than usual, lots of holiday-makers out on their boats and the beaches (I use the term loosely), plus 2 barges from 2 directions just in case we got bored. (We didn’t.)

And then there was the premiere episode of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Socks! In which I give an extra pair of socks to Alyson, who will pass them along to the next sailor in need. Stay tuned for the next thrilling installment! And I just now realized that, in all the docking practice excitement (which more than made up for the lack of wind), I never took any photos during this sail. Hopefully someone else got some?? And thanks especially to Alyson and Fran for guiding me through my first docking experience!!

… and straight into a very active* (she understated), slightly crazy, and, dare I say, educational sail in winds gusting into the 20s. Gorgeous day with my new sailing friends on the Columbia, wouldn’t have missed this for the world! *Hence minimal photos.