Wednesday, July 25, 2012

2012 Master Mariners


Rob Posting....

I'm very late at writing the post.  In May I had the honor of driving Bounty around the San Francisco race course for the annual Master Mariners Regatta.

Bounty is a beautiful 52 foot Sparkman and Stephens that was launched in 1950.


Every stitch of sail up!  Notice the fire boat blasting water in the air in the background.  This was part of the destroyer Iowa's escort out of the bay.
This downwind leg was incredible.  Winds were in the mid-20s and Bounty was moving a lot of water!

This photo and the two above are compliments of Tom Zinn Photography


The mighty 11 Meter Pursuit as she passes us down the city front

Heading down the Oakland estuary after the race

Fantastic crew!

Encinal Yacht Club did a wonderful job getting all these wooden beauties crammed into the harbor





Monday, July 16, 2012

T-minus 2 months


From Nancy:

Having a great summer as we watch the calendar days march towards Sept. 15th.  Aside from a few remaining boat projects that will require a few days being unavailable to play, Rob reports we really are ready to go.  Now we are also in social mode, getting in as much facetime with our land-based friends. 

Home has become two places, Los Altos and Sausalito, and we are back and forth each week, with our comical ‘family calendar’ which is NOTbased on Google or Outlook, but the basic 365 days at a glance in the home office.  


Bryan has settled into a great full-time summer job at Cisco, which keeps him busy, and me closer to Los Altos during his work week.  Last weekend was a flurry of phone calls, emails and texts, as several bigger household items were posted on Craigslist and Autotrader.  We sold our beautiful pool table and ping pong set to a couple in Modesto, parted with the rocketbox to a younger family that still camps and skis, and entertained lots of questions on our cars.  It was much easier to give away some bikes and other furniture to friends!  There are 55-60 neatly stacked and labeled boxes in our house, which are good reminders of all the things we really don’t need, but want to keep. 

The most common questions we get are “How long are you going to be gone” and “where are you going?”.  My response is based on practical things like, “well, we’re renting out our house a year at a time, but will be flying back for visits at least next spring and a longer stay in the summer”. (Note: America’s Cup 2013!). The “where are you going?” is easy, as Mexico seems like a fine destination with way too much to enjoy in one sailing season.  I describe Bryan’s finals schedule in December and his airplane ticket already purchased from Boston to Manzanillo. We know we need to be there December 16th. (Barra de Navidad)

The list is much smaller but here are some more notables on our calendar:
  • Swing dance lessons – this week
  • First aid/cpr class – next week
  • Consult with our doctor friend on medical emergencies and needed prescriptions – this week
  • Piano recital - (why not have more stress on my calendar?) –Thursday!
  • Physicals, lab work, eye exams -scheduled
  • Custom work out routine for sailing life  – I met a great trainer at the club who went cruising for a year in Mexico
  • Get house ready to rent – starts showing end of July
  • Sell two cars – in process 
  • Enjoy 10 days in the Delta with sailing friends in August – Yippee!!!!