Sailing Party

Bruce and I spent Thursday night in Beeville with long time friends and Cruisers, Karl and Jan.  Karl owns the boat that Bruce and I were crewing aboard when we met.  They plan to Cruise again beginning this October as well and we enjoyed the opportunity to catch up and hear some of their Cruising stories.

While we were there, our daughter was planning an impromptu sailing party on our boat!  She and her friends had such a good time during the Navy Regatta, she decided to invite MORE friends out for a day sail.  OK with us, the more the merrier.  So we invited Karl and Jan, partly to pay them back for their stellar hospitality, and partly so that we would have more "boat people" on board for moral support.

Turns out, we need not have worried...  Brittney has become such a sailor girl, she pretty much took care of her guests, leaving us to do some more catching up with Jan and Karl.

I gave the six young ladies a brief orientation about what to expect and how to use the potty down below, while Bruce oriented the lone young man up topside.  Pretty quickly, everyone claimed their spot and we were underway.  Brittney continued on the back deck with some more advice and stories of her own.

We. Love. This. Boat.  Each time we take her out, we find more reasons to be nothing but happy with our choice.  Bruce was a little worried that we wouldn't have room for 11 people to be comfortable.  At the end of the day, he admitted that his fears were unfounded and this boat can handle anything we throw at her with style and grace.

The girls spread themselves over the deck with front row seats for the scenery along the Lydia Ann Channel and the occasional dolphin sighting.

The water was a beautiful blue green and the skies were full of fluffy white clouds and sunshine.
Mud Island was our destination.  The forecast East winds made it perfect for sailing the Lydia Ann channel without motoring.  When we turned to approach the anchorage, we dropped sails and motored straight upwind until I found a spot with sufficiently flat water.  We dropped anchor and Brittney went down below to begin making piles of sandwiches for our hungry crew.

We devoured the delicious snacks and everyone grabbed a floatie and the beverage of their choice, and we retired to the water for a float.

If you follow this blog, you may begin to see a pattern here.  There are few things we love as much as hanging off the transom with a beverage and some friends.

So many people ask us how we can live on a boat.  Once they attend one of these afternoons, they begin to see more why we love this life.  These are the good times.

The skies began to fill with less fluffy clouds and it looked like we might be in for a deck wash... a quick check of the radar on the iPad showed it to be slipping by above us.  We were left with delightful cloud cover making the afternoon utterly pleasant.

We swam until our fingers were wrinkled and then pulled anchor to head for home.  The girls dripped dry on the deck while A.J. honed his new sailing skills helping Bruce do the manly tasks.

All the while, the girls were hard at work as well on the back deck...

We certainly felt like the "Cool-Aid Boat" today!  Everyone was happy.

The winds actually dropped for a change as we sailed comfortably towards our slip.  I had opted to test my theory that Jezabelle's seasickness was partly nerves, by allowing her to remain in our cabin instead of making her stay in the salon while we were under way.  She found herself a spot and there were no "incidents" the whole day.  Maybe she's just getting used to sailing since we seem to be getting out more.  I will say that she seems to be developing some surliness towards visitors.  I think she's made the connection between people showing up and the boat going out sailing.

Bruce and I sat on the deck in the evening after everyone went home.  We talked over the events of the day and we couldn't be happier with the way the boat handled, the smiles on the faces of our guests, and our pride in our daughter.  We had a GREAT day and will say to Brittney's friends:  You are all welcome again for our next Sailing Party!