Sucia Sail w/ Hank

Hank and I went up to Port Townsend and caught a little of the Coho Ho Ho field trip/shop tour with Lisa and Dan at Port Townsend Rigging. We took the ferry Coupeville, drove up Whidby Island, put all our gear on Hanks Cal 39, s/v Marquerida, found a good Thai dinner, and crashed. While Hank has sailed from Hawaii to Seattle, he had never tied to a mooring buoy. So, lets sail to Sucia, I suggested. On Sunday morning it was calm, but lots of breeze predicted. We reefed, and had a fun lumpy sail across the South end of the Strait of Georgia to Echo Bay. Hank drove us right up to the buoy, I lay down on the deck, and passed the line through the ring, and you would have thought we'd been to the buoy a hundred times. Next time will bite, it could easily turn into a rodeo, and alas it was only a quick tour. I rolled the leftover Thai into an omelet, and we soon sailed off the mooring, and headed back. We saw a few other boats and were very happy to be on the Cal 39. Marquerida loves to go upwind, which makes sailing easier and fun. We had a chance to play with preventing the main, and poling out the jib - two cruising "tools" that need a bit more work. We did hit 7 knots, in moderate downwind conditions, wing on wing, pretty cool! What a great day sailing! As always, I try to get shots of the boat, locations and crew, and hope you enjoy the pics, half as much as I enjoy the time with all of you - thanks!
(Click on a image below for a larger image "slide show" - arrow keys work well.)