Letter Home

Happy Holidays to all of you. I apologize for not calling before it was too late this evening, but time zones and events overtook me.

Suzy and are doing well. We just returned the boat from a 3 week stint in Berkeley. We met someone who wanted to swap slips; we wanted to see what Bay sailing was like (our home marina in Redwood City is about a four hour motor sail from most of the other sailing destinations, weather, deep water, etc.) and he was just starting a new job and wanted to avoid the 60 minute commute while he ramped up and got his telecommuting re-established. First, berthing your boat at Berkeley Marina is about the nicest place that I can imagine on the Bay. You are in a sheltered marina, with fairways wide enough to sail in, while you are literally five minutes from the finest sailing the Bay has to offer (which is pretty darn good!). Second, commuting from Berkeley to Sunnyvale is killer. The stress of driving to survive just about did me in. I am happy to be a 20 leisurely minutes from the office again.

Wishful Thinking is coming along. We've actually spent a month without a major repair or upgrade! This is a good thing, especially for my bank account. I am hoping that we've reached the peak of new homeowneritis and things will quiet down to a gentle boil. ;-) We actually sailed the boat. Imagine that! All this time and we've either had some kind of mechanical problem or the wind has been right on our nose.

You see, we didn't return directly home from Berkeley. Instead we had a short detour up to Richmond Marina for the weekend. The Singlehanded Sailing Society (no, it isn't for single amputees) had a hands-on, BYOB (bring your own boat) seminar for their biennial race to Hawaii. We're not going, but it is a possibility for 2000, and the stuff we're learning by attending is entirely applicable to our long term cruising plans. Besides, it is fun to meet some (admittedly hard-core, extreme) sailors. Suzy's cruising experience is also providing for some interesting exchange of ideas.

So, we camped out Sunday night, and first thing Monday morning (I had arranged for a much needed day off), we set off south for home. The winds were light, north of the Bay Bridge. So much so that we fired up the iron wind for about a quarter mile (after I stubbornly forced us to try to sail through the 2 knot current for 90 minutes going nowhere, okay, backwards). Once under the bridge, we had a close reach most of the way down. It was a bit cold and squally, but nothing serious and I got to use my foulies for their intended purpose. After leaving at around ten, we pulled into the slip at about 7:30 in a dead calm (my favorite docking weather). After dinner, I think we both were asleep before our heads hit the pillow.

This week has been eventful. Even though I wasn't commuting back and forth from Berkeley anymore, we still managed more than a few miles on the car. Tuesday was a crew "mixer" hosted by the local sailing rag, "Latitude 38". Uncle Jack, if you don't get this, you should. It is free in lots of places (yacht clubs, marinas and marine supply stores). Of course the mixer was in Oakland, so off we went back and forth across the bay. Wednesday, SSS had another seminar, this time in Oakland (right down the block from where we were the night before), this time on sails, repair, and sail inventories. Quite fun! Thursday was an almost normal day.

Almost normal. Ananke (the cat) has a benign tumor in her thyroid gland. It makes her hyper sometimes and messes with other parts of her metabolism. We've taken her to a vetinary oncologist for radioactive iodine therapy. It is very much like the therapy they have for people, except the human patients are allowed to go home the same day, while the pets have to stay in isolation. You can either view this as a cost saving measure on the part of HMO's or over-caution on the part of state health officials. Hard to say. In any case, we are cat-less for the next week or so, or until Ananke stops glowing in the dark (or more accurately, her poop ;-).

Well, that's all the news that's fit to print. We're off to Sausalito tomorrow for a swap meet. Sunday is a day off. And Monday, I'm back to my coastal navigation class. Next weekend we're having a re-naming party for the boat. The next weekend is a boat show, and the weekend after that Dad and Gail are due here to visit. We'll sail the boat up to San Francisco for the weekend (it is so cool to move your house whenever the mood strikes you!) so we'll be close by. May is already starting to look quite busy on the social calender, and June is fast approaching.

We hope you're having a happy holiday.

Next year in Jerusalem!

Love,