Great Weekend Of Sailing

We splashed Wrinkles on Thursday night to enjoy a long weekend of sailing before Brenda's school opened the next week. Mike got up early to go off to work while Brenda lounged aboard watching the boats come and go. She had a couple of things on her work list for the day (attach a flag to the staff and clean off our "junk shelf" in the companionway) and a good book to read. Guess which tasks she accomplished? Yup, no flag and the shelf was still a mess. In her defense, even the book was still unfinished as she enjoyed the view and the beautiful weather under the Bimini all day.

Com-Pac 19 George at the tiller

 

After work Mike arrived at the boat and gave a quick tour to some onlookers. The winds looked promising, so we headed out for a fine evening of sailing. The winds were as good as we hoped and the sailing was just plain fun. We sailed all over the lake until an outdoor restaurant was calling our names just before sunset. We docked at the new public pier off the Memorial Union and enjoyed an awesome sunset. On State Street we tried a new restaurant called "Roast" which had outdoor seating and some good food. Tasty food and a couple cold drinks make for happy sailors.

 

We wandered back to the boat to listen to the band at the Union while relaxing on our boat. The band wasn't the best, but we enjoyed the spirit and energy that the crowd was exuding. About 11:30 we decided to sail to our anchorage for the night. The winds surprised us by cooperating and giving us a nearly perfect beam reach. A 3/4 moon shining brightly, gentle winds, water swishing against the hull and a good boat made for a relaxing sail. We were both quietly enjoying the sail and watching the north shore line until we realized that we had passed our intended bay by over a mile. Laughing at ourselves we tacked and headed back. Sails down, anchor set, v-berth made up with too many blankets.......goodnight.

Saturday we awoke to find bigger waves and really good winds. Brenda cooked up breakfast and coffee to start us off right. We received a call from some good friends who wanted to go out sailing with us. We sailed over to the Union and picked them up. We knew we would have a fun day as Scott and Penny are two of the funniest people we have ever known. We sailed with a reef in the main and the headsail furled to match so they could get the feel of heeling without abandoning ship right away. They took to sailing like Mike takes to chocolate. The boys had the cockpit to themselves because the girls went directly to the bow to enjoy the breeze and view. Scott took over the tiller for an hour or so and looked right at home. We unreefed the sails and gave our company a little time aboard with the boat kicking up her heels.

Scott at the helm

 

Brenda and Penny

Back at the Union docks Scott and Penny bought us some drinks as we sat in the shade of tree enjoying Madison's beauty. Thanks for a great day guys, we sure had fun.

Memorial Union

 

Half an hour later we were joined by three couples from Marshall, WI that had just pulled into the docks on their power boat. Gee, more drinks at the Union anyone? After imbibing we all walked up to State Street to eat outdoors at State Street Brats. We spent the rest of the evening enjoying time on the docks with our little group listening to another band at the Union. We finally untied our lines around midnight to sail to our anchorage. We're too old to keep staying up this late! Once again the winds cooperated and we had a fun and memorable sail.

Sunday began with OUR bay full of boats. We are used to waking up to an empty bay or at most two other boat in view. This morning the bay had lots of tenants. The winds really picked up and the waves were white capping. So after reading, fishing and swimming we decided it was time to go play. With reefed and furled sails we ventured out and had a ball bashing around and playing the winds. Wrinkles is just plain fun to sail in these conditions now that she has her new sails. We watched some of the heartier souls out there with too much sail up having all kinds of adrenaline enhanced fun. Sorry, we prefer reefing down and going hull speed under more control.

Another really great weekend of sailing aboard Wrinkles. We are a little sad to realize that each sail on her brings us that much closer to trading her in for a larger cruiser.

 

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