Bay Day

Last weekend, on just about the prettiest day of the year, when the air was warm and the winds were light, My Beloved was invited for a day of sailing on a nifty little boat called Elska, one of his birthday treats from his younger daughter and her main squeeze who owns the boat.

My Beloved grew up in a family of sailors. His parents met while crewing on a friend's boat and all three of their children were introduced to sailing at a very early age. In his teens, My Beloved with his Dad and brother sailed competitively and were very successful. His brother is a passionate sailor still and his sister and her husband have been mainstays of the sailing program in their town. Only MB wasn't bitten by the bug, but he does enjoy the occasional day out on the water with the wind in his hair and the sun on his shoulders.

I got to tag along, my first sail on the bay in the thirteen years I have lived here. I have crossed the bay on ferries and even enjoyed it from the deck of the USS Potomac, but this was my first trip on a sailboat.

Katie packed a lovely lunch of salami and cornichon sandwiches on buttered baguettes and blanched green beans with olive oil and lemon zest, as well as cheese and nibbles of olives, cherry tomatoes and Persian cucumber spears. Well supplied, we put-putted down the Oakland estuary past Jack London Square and enormous cranes loading and unloading giant freighters, and out into the bay.

The captain killed the engine, raised the sails and away we went, wafted on gentle breezes. When asked where in the bay he'd like to go, My Beloved chose to inspect the progress on the new Bay bridge being built with huge cost and long delays to replace twenty years later the rickety section that fell down in the Loma Prieta earthquake. We sailed under the new span, awed by the size of the engineering feat that it represents and thrilled by the sweep of the part already completed. Eventually, it will look like this. They seem poised to begin the suspension part of the span.

We sailed on around Treasure Island, enjoying music floating out over the water from a concert being held on the island. Rounding the north end of the island, we spotted porpoises and seals in the water and enjoyed watching pelicans and terns plunging headfirst into the water to catch fish for lunch. The wind through the Golden Gate picked up and we heeled over, wetting the rail and relishing the increased speed. We sailed back under the bridge on the west side, marveling again at the sheer size of these links to San Francisco.

On the way back, the wind died completely and we bobbed on a glassy bay where just a short distance away we could see the water dancing with wind-whipped waves. I think we experienced just about every kind and direction of wind that day.

Thanks to our Captain and his lovely Elska for a day on the water, and to Katie for a delicious lunch. We will remember with pleasure our bay day.

By-the-Wind Sailors

Have you noticed that the younger generation, the ones in their twenties and early thirties now, are such adventurous people?

My Beloved's daughter Sarah went on an exchange program to Germany in her junior year - of high school! - and returned speaking perfect, fluent German.

His daughter Katie went without a blink to Europe with her cousin Molly at the tender age of 17, knowing not a word of any of the languages they would encounter there, and traveled around for more than a month on a shoestring.

Young friend Jodie zipped off to Peru for a year after graduation and spent time high in the Andes helping Peruvians and sampling local delicacies such as guinea pig.

Fairy Godson Mark set off lightheartedly to explore Spain as a high school student and then took on Germany in college before he had much German to smooth his path.

My Fairy Goddaughter Pamela sky dives and loves it, as does her cousin Pete, who is also a pilot. These youngsters think nothing of adventures that I wouldn't dream of taking now, much less at their ages!

Last week, however, we had a visit from a young couple who have topped them all.

First, Jim built a 30-foot wooden sailboat with his own two hands, including melting lead to pour the keel, bending the wood planks for the hull, and doing all the beautiful finish carpentry in the cabin. Then, to prove Carina was seaworthy, he set sail with a friend for Ireland! Carina is lovely but she doesn't have an engine, electricity, or refrigeration! They navigated with a hand-held GPS unit and a satellite phone, clear across the Atlantic and back again. He taught me that if you keep your beer in the bilges, it will be cooler than the ambient air. Did I mention that he sailed back alone?

He met Sarah somewhere along his travels and they decided to set sail together, so they sailed Carina from Cape Cod to the Virgin Islands, across the Caribbean to the Panama Canal, through the canal and out into the Pacific, down to the Galapagos Islands, headed for New Zealand. At that point, they heard that they would not be granted work visas in New Zealand, so they changed course for the Marquesas and ended up, finally, in Hawaii. Again, with just the hand-held GPS and the satellite phone, sometimes in legs that lasted up to two and a half weeks! I have it on good authority that one must be very careful when landing tuna for dinner as large sharks will take a big bite of your intended dinner and give you serious rope burns while doing so. I also learned that, when one is miles and miles out into the ocean, one need not wear clothing if the weather is warm enough - there is little risk of being surprised in one's birthday suit.

After living and working in Hawaii for several months, these two by-the-wind sailors decided to return to the Virgin Islands where they hope to put down roots. They sold Carina and flew in to town to stop with us on their way to Lake Tahoe, the Grand Canyon and points east. At dinner with us and Katie, they had their brains thoroughly picked by young Andre', who is dreaming of a circumnavigation of his own!

This amazing generation, I can't wait to learn what they accomplish with their confidence and their huge sense of adventure.