February Idylls

Michael Braly, freshly returned from China with the latest member of the Braly clan, joined me on Ripple for a February sail today.  Quite a lovely day, though not much (any) wind to speak of. We did set the mains'l and the stays'l, but it was eyewash.   The only moving air was in the exhaust of my one-lung Yanmar.
We ventured into Lake Washington to collect sunshine and listen to the thruming of traffic on the 520 bridge, and Michael regaled me with stories of their life-changing 3 week sojourn in China.
Coming back, I asked Michael to spot me on our return to the dock.  I applied the trick that Lynn Reister told me about bringing a boat into the dock single-handed: tie the ends of the bow line and stern line together in a large loop bow to stern, and hop out at the appropriate time and you've got each under control.  I managed to foul the joined lines with the spring line and the lifelines, but it proved only a small problem.  Basically, It worked like a charm, and I was able to bring Ripple into her berth single-handed for the first time... an important step.  Thank you, Lynn!

A red lantern day, indeed.
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Michael's picture of me stowing the stays'l on our reentry to Lake Union.

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