2008 Sailing Journal Begins - Feb. 10th

Feb. 10th, 2008 and I got my first sail of the year. The weather couldn't have been better. 65 degrees, 5-15 knots of breeze and an afternoon to enjoy. Seems every year we get this one week in February in which a high pressure system sits over the area and the temperatures go up and it makes sense to wear shorts... until the sun goes down. I'm not a big fan of the global warming mumbo jumbo, but if it means I get southern California weather in the winter... OK. For those of you who are buying into the hype, study the weather patterns for the last 200 years, then read the bible, then read A Short History of Nearly Everthing by Bill Bryson. This is from where I've gained a signifigant perspective. Now I'm not advocating making the world a dirtier place and I don't dump bleech in a boat bag to keep growth off my boat... and dang it, it took a looong time today scrubbing the bottom to make it cleaner, but what industry is Al Gore in that he profits from scaring us all into believing the sky is yellow? It's Blue. And today the sky was a magnifigant blue with streaking high clouds. I saw Jason Roe out on USA 16 before we left the dock, but didn't see him once we got out there. Good thing, the bottom was so dirty I think Chris Herrmann could have beat us today ;)
Partick, his 12 month old puppy and I set out this afternoon for a 3 hour tour... a 3 hour tour. The weather never started getting rough, but our tiny ship was tossed around by this idiot in a fishing boat who insisted on going in front of us... and I mean out of his way to go in front of us. We gave him the thumbs up for his kindness as we held the backstay as not to let the mast whip and snap. We sailed up to the Golden Gate Bridge in a building ebb, tacked over toward Crissy Field, then gybed and laid a course for... over there somewhere, not really caring if the sails were properly trimmed (yeah right). We sailed into the last of the flood and noticed the Harding Rock Bouy was a little bigger than I remember it. Seems it's been replaced with a very big replacement.
The puppy had her life vest on and we tethered her leesh to the mast, so no body freak out and tell me how potentially cruel I am to animals.

As we sailed away from Harding Rock, I broke my own no recieveing cell phone calls on the boat. I'll only accept or immediately return Cassandra's calls as the exception to the rule... I need to be a resposible father/husband, right? Otherwise, leave a message. I'll get back to you when the boat is put away... if I rememer to check my messages.
Dinner was at 6pm and it was now close to 4pm, I can't help it... let's sail into acquatic park and chase swimmers. They'd have to be stupid to swim in this freezing, partially treated 2.7 million gallon swewage dumped bay/toilet. I'm mad about this. First, the oil spill, now the sewage. Global warming won't kill us as quickly as human stupidity.
So, we chased one swimmer and tried to run her over. But she was too fast for us in the light winds... kidding. Only saw one swimmer getting out of the water as we entered the area. Too far away and too close to land to threaten. Again, I kid. I'm a kidder. I only chase them down when they get all high and mighty and act like I don't have a right to sail there, I do. I don't have an engine and it's a nice place to take a break from a pouding ebb on a strong wind day. But not today. Today was just a nice pleasant sail in the 2nd week of February.