Home	Encinal Cruise / Svendsen's Night 4/25/15

(If you like, you can skip down through the prose and go straight to the pictures below!)

Nanci Melton exclaimed, "Are we really going?" when they arrived at Freedom Won Friday afternoon with strong winds and approaching rain. "Yes," said John, and they motored the 1/4 mile up the protected Estuary from Marina Village to the Encinal docks. Others considered the forecasted cold front and predicted Saturday morning rain and wind, and chose to rig their land yachts. Except intrepid Dennis & Judy Bush, who waited until the rain stopped and the wind backed off Saturday morning and powered the same 1/4 to the Encinal docks with Natural High.

But it turned out to be a beautiful day and 22 folks representing 12 Islanders enjoyed the day. Here's the list.

As people arrived Saturday morning, we gathered aboard Freedom Won, kept warm down below and caught up with each other. By noon we moved upstairs to Encinal's second deck and assembled a long table with about 18 folks for lunch. The sun was peaking out by now and continued clearing as we ate lunch.

With a nice breeze blowing down the Estuary, John Melton hosted rick, Phillip and Rick aboard Freedom Won for an afternoon sail. Departing the docks about 1430, we beat our way out to the mouth of the Estuary, taking about an hour to get there. Then we spotted the Islander 36 Petit Sirah heading back in, so we tacked astern of her, gybed and began a pursuit. (The definition of a race is two boats in sight of each other.) With John in racing mode, we sharpened up across Petit Sirah's stern and got clear ahead, then poled out the jib to run wing on wing dead down the Estuary all the way past Jack London Square. Sharpening up to a nice reach we sailed back to Encinal, furled the jib, dropped the main, and tied up at the dock as neat as you please about 1630.

Then it was time to head on over to Svendsen's for their much appreciated Discount Night. We were greeted with a modest selection of nibbles and beverages to get things started, but the serious shoppers had their lists ready. The pictures below show just serious the shopping was. It was a good hour and a half before we gathered to thank Svendsen's for this much-appreciated tradition and lug our loot back to cars and boats.

Finally, back downstairs in EYC's Regatta Room Kathryn rolled out the Tucker's Ice Cream - locally made in Alameda and emblazoned with "Life is uncertain ...Eat dessert first.". Everyone pulled up chairs and enjoyed their treats, and it wasn't long before all three half gallons were gone.

So another great Islander 36 event came to a close. Enjoy the pictures.

Pictures by Rick Van Mell. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

Cloudy Saturday Freedom Won	Sandy & Nanci ...	Natural High arrives ...	Laurie & Judy ...
Hi again.	Dennis, Sandy, John & Smokey ...	enjoy goodies below.	Kathryn & Judy
Lunch time ...	Laurie, Smokey, Phillip	Art, Betsy, Nanci, John	Kathryn, Judy & Dennis
Sun's out!	Going sailing ...	Phillip on jib ...	Rich on main.
Beating out the Estuary	Looking good.	Over 6 knots.	I-36 Petit Sirah
Time to ...	chase them ...	looking ahead ...	jib is ...
poled out.	making tracks ...	dead down wind.	Eric, Rob, Smokey & Dennis
Phillip is ...	tying up.	With flags flying, and ...	looking great ...
shop at Svendsen's ...	and nibble too ...	Dennis has his ...	Ruby & Rob shop ...
Kathryn, Rick & Takae ...	Eric buys it all!	Thanks Svendsen's!	Life is uncertain ...
eat dessert ...	digging in ...	kicking back ...	enjoying the day.

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