Albie's Boat: 'Canta Libre'
Columbia 22
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Anniversary Sail
"Tonight the moon light glitters on the sea like magic. The wind dances across the water, pulling the sails and brushes against my cheeks."This is how my wife describes our sail this evening on the eve of our 18th wedding anniversary!
The sunset on the water is beautiful. We are having fun taking pictures of each other, the boat and the suns afterglow. It is very enjoyable just relaxing and talking as the boat sails on its way.
We tack, and the wind catches the sails and pulls the boat over on its side slightly. Suddenly Janette exclaims: "We're falling!" I think its so funny to see the look on my wife's face as she's describing all of this! I answer her: "Its just leaning. That's what sailboats do! (It must take quiet a few sails to get used to this.').
Just as we are heading out to sea, I notice that the fishes and the little breaking waves near the boat are creating little phosphoric streaks across the water! The ocean glows as if it is magical. Little phosphoric trails from the fishes flashes by. Out across the water, every breaking wave glimmers an eerie green, and Janette and I stand out in the cockpit, holding on to the life rail, watching! It is beautiful. Like nothing I have seen before. Though I had seen this bio-luminescance before - its never been quite like this. Suddenly the fishes swim out from under the boat and we see a trail of shining green. And then the waves disperse alongside the boat and they light up! We Watch the waves out at sea break and instead of seeing white, we see instead this flash of green all along the tops of the waves - everywhere. Its so amazing!
Janette and I are having so much fun together. The lights from shore and the waves playing along the sides of the boat are relaxing to watch. But then Janette starts to feel a little sea sick, so I encourage her to rest on the v-birth bed.
As she sleeps below, the wind is making the sails bellow out with the pressure. The constant breeze blowing at a steady rate, is pulling us along the dark bumpy waves. And then the boat comes too far up wind and the sails crack like thunder. Waves lit by a faint glow, pass by without number. Lights off on the horizon - some white, some yellow, orange, red and gold, flicker from shore. Some other lights out in the deep, shine to us from a big ship anchored in the distance. The hills behind the shore lights are these black mysterious silhouettes on the sky line.
We then sail back into the harbor and as we near our slip, we both notice the delightful patterns the wind is creating on the water. In places, the wind is not present and creates this glossy and shiny look - void of motion. It looks like glass. But elsewhere, like streaks across the glass, "the wind dances across the water looking like it is being tickled and creates these goose bumps everywhere!" That's how Janette describes it and I think it is very descriptive and imaginative!
Thanks for your comments!
~Albie
http://SailingWithAlbie.blogspot.com
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Albie's Columbia 22 ~ The 'Canta Libre'
I really enjoy my boat and feel relatively safe in her. She has about a thousand pounds in her keel and reinforced fiberglass. I've sailed in more bad weather than I can count in her but on one accasion saw what she was really capable of when we got hit with a gale off Catalina Isle. The winds were up to 40 knots and waves went from five then to ten then to twenty feet high. Inside, you could feel the fiberglass vibrating and outside the rigging and sails hummed away like a full blown engine. Jumping wave crests and falling down into the troughs with umimaginable force - caused us all to believe she would fall apart and that we would have to start bailing soon - but no. I guess after that day, I knew I had a strong booat that surpassed any test I could have given her.
Generally, though, I just like to go sailing in her a couple times a week, and then come back into the dock, tie her off and then relax on the sofa and drink hot chocolate and read a sailing book! I then fall asleep in the v-birth and enjoy waking up to a nice new morning with the sun shining through the forward hatch.
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