A Beautiful Day

I can now say summer has finally arrived. At least for one day. We still have much to accomplish prior to our departure, however when you wake up to a warm summer day on the Oregon coast, you had better take advantage of it. Perfect sunny days here just don't come around often enough to ignore. Even if we tried to be diligent in the pursuit of the perfect seaworthy craft, our minds would not be on our current project, but on the joy of sailing on such a rare beautifull day. With this fact in mind, we invited our neighbor (Jason) along and went sailing.
Judy took the helm, motoring out of Yaquina Bay and across the bar to the open sea. Heading NW into the wind we deployed the jib, allowing Judy to get a feel for Wind Raven. She sailed her for around 30 minutes before raising the main. The track is a bit sticky on the main and I must clean and silicone it ASAP. We sailed for around four hours, putting Wind Raven through her paces. As before she performed very well. The wind was much lighter than the 23 knots on our prior sail. This pleasurable decrease in wind was amplified by the beautiful smile etched on Judy's lovely face. She sailed Wind Raven back across the bar and through the channel into Yaquina Bay where we dropped sail and then returned to our moorage. All in all, a fantastically beautiful day.
Our friend Jason was an excellent crew, and a pleasure to share such a perfect day of sailing with. Someday I hope to have such a mellow personality as he. Perhaps life on the sea will contribute to the smoothing of my somewhat rough edges? I certainly hope so, and am certain Judy would agree!