shrew

Memorial Day 2011

Friday May 27th: Stopped at a friend's house on the way to the boat and didn't end up getting to the boat until almost 11pm. SO MANY loads of stuff to bring down the dock. At midnight the dock cart sounds SO LOUD banging it's way down the dock. I felt guilty about making som much noise so late at night. aparently not TOO guilty, I ended making 5 round trips with the thing. The weather that day was beautiful and the forecasts have been getting better and better as the week progressed. We only launched the weekend before and aside from a short cruise from the boat lift to the slip, we really hadn't taken the boat out yet.

Saturday May 28th: We woke up ready for the day (and the weekend), however it seems the day was not ready for us. The Marina was completely socked in. I couldn't even see the marina parking lot from my slip. There are still at least 20-30 boats on stands. Some 40 footers RIGHT at the end of my dock. WOW it's foggy today, it will burn off after breaksfast. It's ok, we still have a few last minute projects to complete.

Saturday, Late morning..........and still foggy. I'm sure it will burn off after lunch. We're going to grab some last minute parts for our projects and have some lunch. It'll burn off by the time we finish lunch. While out on our errands we see it is clearing up nicely.

Saturday , early afternoon. Ok it's still Saturday........ and STILL heavy, heavy fog. Lunch is done. There was a momentary break, but the fog rolled back in. We decide to get a few more projects done. The admiral cracks a beer and asks me if I want one. Do I???!! Boy do I ever!!! (I don't like the way this is going).

Saturday, 4:00pm, the fog lifts on the water, however the fog in brain has clearly decended and decided to stay. We had resigned ourselves not to going out and I had resigned myself to........well.......to be honest I had no idea, but I'm sure another beer will help it come right back to me. Tomorrow will be a better day, it's much warmer than yesterday and those nice folks at NOAA are calling for Patchy fog.

Sunday, May 29th: We wake up to..............yep, Friggin Fog!!! Those lying bastahdz at NOAA!!! If this guy Noah (NOAA) were standing on the side of the road in the pouring rain, I'd only pull over far enough to hit the puddle he was standing next to. Patchy fog my azz!!!! Bald Faced Liars I tell ya!!! It's either that, or I was sitting in the middle of THE largest and longest lasting 'patch' I've ever seen. It's no wonder so many people drowned in the 'Great Flood' of the old testament. If noah (NOAA) told me there was going to be a flood, I'd laugh and ignore him too. (I know I get no sympathy from the Pac West crew).

Sunday, 2:00pm: Fogg lightens but doesn't look like it's going to break. As a matter of fact, as we're readying to head out, other folks are pointing to the mouth of the river, where it looks like it's going to roll in again. This hapened yesterday too. i've been out in fog, I have radar for a reason and I simply don't care anymore. We head out.

Sunday afternoon: The ride turned out to be beautiful. fog cleared and the water was unusually calm. I got a chance to stretch teh boat's legs for the first time this year and she ran great! The anchorage we frequently frequent is uncommonly unoccupied. We drop the hook and settle in. The admiral asks if I'd like a beer. Do I??!!!! Boy would I ever!!!!

Sunday Later in the Afternoon: the Admiral announces that we're out of beer. Uh, how did that happen?? The admiral laughs and comes back with a Bourbon. (I don't like the way this is going). We break out the grill and use the new grill mount we installed (see misc. projects from Saturday). the new grill mount works perfectly and allows us to leave the grill up AND put up all of the curtains as well. The admiral is happy.....I like the way this is going. the admiral slips a fresh bourbon in my hand.

Monday, May 30: We wake up and look outside. Can't see land. Can't see the boat's that used to be next to us. We are officially in 'The white room'. Yep..........................Fog like you read about. Neither I nor the admiral (a self-proclaimed weather junky) don't even bother with the wether band. F them, they're idiots. Of course about an hour later, the 'weaherholic' has WX1 up and it's 'patchy fog and passing thunderstorms'. I assume that means it either will or will not be nice. At least they've narrowed it down to two options for me.

Monday, late morning: It starts to rain. The 5-10 kts of wind NOAA professed, is easily 20kts+. Either that or the sailboat next to us listens to music that sounds like wind howling through the rigging. Maybe his rigging is prone to howling at 5kt wind. Maybe I'm too hard on the weather folks, they probably don't want to work on memorial day weekend and are bitter themselves. I'm beginning to feel like this is a conspiracy. If they can't have fun on the long weekend NOBODY is going to have fun.

Monday, early afternoon: The fog lifts, the rain stops, the sun comes out. We grill some lunch. We pickup. We decide to head back. The ride back was a confused, wind blown chop stacked up tight, but only 1-2.

On the ride home, the admiral says "What an absolutely fantastic weekend. I had a great time!!" I could't have agreed more. I can't wait to do it again next weekend.