Friday the 14th

After the sail from Berkeley, I have a much better grasp of how the S22 handles rougher conditions. Matt and I decided we'd head up to Coyote and do a run, finish a couple of minor "chores" on the boat and do a quick sail.

Coyote Point is such a nice park. If I played golf, I guess it would be perfect...I don't. We ran out north along the same path that I had gone when I saw the drunk guy crash into the drainage ditch. This allowed me to scope out the windsurfing launch areas. The path is asphalt or concrete the whole way and I think Matt's iPhone GPS told us the run was just under 4 miles. We ended on a point where a lot of folks were fishing. A nice bonus was the three foot gopher snake basking along the trail on our return. Big and healthy, it is such a rarity to see these snakes in town anymore. I used to see these snakes all along the edge of cities, but cars have taken their toll. Regradless, nice to see.

The remaining chores were pretty quick to wrap up. I had to tighten the bolts on the cabin top winches (I've also made new bases for these, but opted not to screw with it right then), install some cam cleats for the winches and a mount for my GPS unit.

I dragged out the 95% jib as it was pretty windy, in fact the small craft advisory flag was up, and had Matt hank it on. Also went ahead and rigged the main reefed instead of opting to reef underway. This all worked out well as we had a rockin ride. Classic...tide going out and the wind coming in made for large waves, sometimes four or five feet in the channel. It was very wet and I was glad for my foulies. Matt had his typical "adventure" outfit on comprising shorts and a windbreaker. We both had life preservers on.

The S22 is "wet" and we were both regularly doused with spray coming from fore and aft. A little surfing when running downwind was cool too. My shimmed rudder post is still creaking like crazy and I am trying to figure out how best to lubricate it without having to pull the whole thing out, which means I'll be under the boat in the water.