We depart the harbor armed with radar, ship identifying AIS and computerized nautical charts that follow the boat’s position. There are a lot of aids available. But 8 of us sat for dinner on Round Midnight after a slow but beautiful sail up the coast 30 miles to Drakes Bay. Carlos talked about how brave those people were, sailing their little ships without engines, charts, lights and so many things we take for granted. I couldn’t believe I’ve sailed around here for 45 years and hadn’t anchored at Drakes before. Go, if you can. But beware of the weather.

Ravenswing shadowed the 30+ boat race fleet (I was too busy to enter and we’re not in the season series anyway) and our performance was fine. She’s not going to light the race course on fire, but we held our own in the 3-5kt wind. At least we didn’t let Round Midnight horizon-job us :). Big thanks to Rick for getting us out there and offering such a nice dinner on his boat. We rafted the Explorer 44, Farrier 36 and Truls’ F27 for 9 hulls. Whales were feeding and a couple of them came very close Saturday, about 80 feet off the boat. Looked like juvenile humpbacks to me. Also with this morning’s flat water the schools of anchovies were amazing to watch as they shimmered the surface. A few miles later at Duxbury Reef there were at least 100 fishing boats out for salmon. Sailing race course and salmon trolling in the same patch of ocean led to some nasty radio chatter. (Ex., “Sailboat, turn NOW!”).

Dan and Chris enjoyed their first Ravenswing overnights and each will be on the boat for trips this fall. We finally got decent wind today in the Bonita Channel and on home to Richmond. It was heavy overcast on the ocean and bright sun over the bay. Summer in SF!

Jeanne finished the rehab on the consignment shop $35 find Forespar man overboard pole. Now we’re proper. Before Drakes run, I tackled the anchor bridle prep. My new eye splice wasn’t perfect but we’ll test that it properly sets/holds.

We’re also finally moving in to the galley, working to keep it light. The fridge is under hereIt got its freezer / cooler separation wall. Freezer side on the left, up against the cold plate. That 1/2″‘foam and 1/4″ ply laminate is overkill, but it was fast and free, being a recycled tabletop from the old travel trailer we sold. Still need some air flow tweaking, but our fridge stuff was nice and the freezer was doing its job this weekend. And speaking of keeping it light, these plastic cups from Target make nice stuff racks.

Plenty more to do this week. Thx again, Rick, Chris and Dan for a great weekend!