Here we are in the “Dog Days of Summer,” and we are taking another quick break before our new grand-daughter makes her début. The project house we have been helping Renee and Neil with is complete except for a short punch list of loose ends. It went on the market last Sunday with an open house event. My sister, Cher, brought over a bunch of her paintings that really dressed the place up. We will add a couple photos from the project to the web site version of this blog.
We launched Regal Jug, our 23 foot sail boat, this afternoon and met some long time sailing friends, Ed and Sarah Daugherty, over at Sand Island just in front of St. Helens Oregon. The winds were fresh and we took the boat for a lively sail with Ed. We used to race in these waters every Wednesday night. It was fun sailing the same courses and reminiscing over the many races we almost won. Perspective is a wonderful thing. From our current perspective, several years later, the races seem to have been much closer than they did at the time. I figure in another ten years we will probably have won some of those races.
After sailing we stayed for supper on Ed and Sarah’s 38 foot sail boat, Hokalua. In the middle of the meal, we heard the crisp toot from a gas horn. We didn’t think too much about it until we heard another toot about five minutes later. We popped up out of the hatch for a look-see and sure enough three sailboats were doing the starting line dance and we were just in time to see the start of the St Helens sail boat race for the evening. Surely this is a continuation of the same series we used to race in; it is a small world indeed.
We tied the boat up at the city docks this evening and then walked back to the coach. The city was hosting band music in the park as we walked through and I met and talked to several of my old compatriots from Boise Cascade.
We are just now starting to think about where we might like to migrate to this fall. The summer here in the Pacific Northwest has been one of the best on record. It has been wonderful being here with family and friends.
Bye now from Gary and Judy.
