Day 3
“The wind on the nose and lumpy seas,” said David. Glimpses of sunshine, steel-grey water, and a playful pod of little dolphins marked our departure at 5:45. E haere ana'e!
A sailing tidbit:
a line is any of the myriad pieces of rope festooning Leona and waiting to trip up an unwary sailor.
a sheet is the line attached to the clew of the sail.
a clew is the point of the sail not attached to the mast.
If I keep learning at this rate, I might be able to read Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander series and actually be able to understand what he’s talking about.
David took a moment to practice his salty sea-dog routine by using the sail repair kit to mend his Cornish sailing smock.
Around 9:30am we turned the Corner (the spot on the chart that demarcates Mexican waters), cut the engine, and let Leona fly.
David and Jeff lived out Richard Henry Dana’s observation in Two Years Before the Mast: “A ship is like a lady’s watch, always out of repair.” They trimmed, tweaked, repaired, improved and adjusted any little thing that could possibly be trimmed, tweaked, repaired, improved, and adjusted.
Georgie led a class on Comparative Pop Divas as she took us through Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter and Taylor Swift’s Tortured Poets Department.
A pop music tidbit:
Post Malone, who has been quiet recently, appears on both of these mammoth releases.
There may have been a bout of cockpit disco, although David and Jeff were too busy trimming, tweaking, repairing, improving and adjusting.
And then Leona really started to fly; with the genoa out, we easily hit 10 knots. But with the moderately heavy seas, we decided to furl the genoa and release the jib.
another sailing tidbit:
both genoa and jib sails live on the bow of the boat.
a genoa overlaps the mainsail when fully unfurled.
a jib only unfurls as far as the mast.
Leona is still flying with the jib and a reefed main (not fully open), getting up to closer to 11 knots. We should be able to stay clear of the ugly little system to the north.
Oh, I saw a shark.
I’d like to give another shout-out to the San Diego Yacht Club. As evening set in, the place was hopping: happy children, enthusiastic yachties, grizzled captains. Given Leona’s prime placement in front of the restaurant, her ego grew considerably with all the compliments tossed her way. We met some loevly people, including Kenyon, the Moody rep for the West Coast. He and Jeff had an enthusiastic, if slightly incomprehensible conversation about hulls and riggings and mechanical specs. Bill Hahn and Danielle Delarmy from Carpinteria stopped by and we discovered some mutual acquaintance, including my SIL Kate who plays tennis with Dani.
Later we were joined for dinner by fellow brewer, bon vivant and friend Chris Cramer who entertained us with fabulous fish-tales and three beautiful bottles of wine from his extensive collection.
It felt like a small world yesterday.
Not any more, as I look out at a 360 degree view of nothing but ocean.