Sailing on Aug 1st

The first day of August turned out to be a great sailing day! Our plan was to set sail at noon to watch the old wooden sailboats participating in the annual McNish Classic race. This is one of the biggest sailing events in the area and draws fine classic wooden boats from up and down the coast. We heard that the famous America's Cup skipper Dennis Conner entered his beautiful 139' schooner America (he won 1st overall last year). This sailboat is a replica of the original America that won what became the America's Cup race in 1851. Although we didn't get to see her under sail, America certainly looked majestic docked in front of the Whale's Tail!


We got off to a late start due to an unexpected visit with the ER. We met LeeAnne's friend Dave down at the marina at about 2:00 and quickly set sail. The McNish Classic had already started so we didn't see too many of the classic boats under sail. We did however leave the CI harbor following the local classic schooner Bill of Rights (see pics of Dave & LeeAnne). It was fun watching them manually hoist their sails the old fashond way without the aid of winches, let alone, power winches which are now commonly found on sailboats half her size!














It was a perfect sailing day with a steady moderate breeze from the W-NW. We sailed out towards Anacapa Island at 4.5-5.5 knots and back at 5-6.6 knots with Dave at the helm. Dave was in the Navy for many years and felt quite comfortable at the helm. This gave Charlie a chance to rest as per his doctor's orders (my big feet in the pic below).














When we returned to the dock, our neighbors were assembling for a pot luck and live band to celebrate Bill's birthday. LeeAnne cooked up some fresh Salmon for the pot luck and we had a great time listening to the music and catching up with our friends on D dock.