Century Club: Jonathan Nepini

SMSA frostbites #1 on a beautiful, very un-frostbite day. Steve was out of town and asked me to skipper Barba Roja in his absence, and we set out with a solid crew of five for the race. We started well, if a scoshe late, in light and shifty conditions. We sailed a clean upwind leg, but found a hole shortly before the upwind mark and let the fleet run away. We set the spinnaker, and got a little bit of ground back. Not my best performance, but a fun race overall and not entirely uncompetitive given the boat and the conditions.

Despite the raw, damp, gusty conditions, I was dead set on the idea of a paddle today, and headed off Forest Landing for a quick lap. I headed up to Camelot (though the property is being sold and the sign has been taken down) in misty rain, and then back past the boat ramp to the beaver dam. The tide was way up, and approaching the top of the ramp when I returned. I'd stop short of calling it a nice paddle, but I think the fresh air was probably good for me on what's ended up being a stressful week. A bad day on the water beats a good day at the office, right?

Out for our weekly sunset sail today on Barba Roja. Great conditions and pleasant weather for a relaxing sail with good company. We put up "Dory" the staysail and experimented with rolling the furling headsail to tack. Afterwards, we leisurely ambled across the river basin and sailed almost all the way back to the slip.

Got going late today, but managed to squeeze in a cool, short paddle. Gorgeous glassy conditions and nocturnal scenery made for an enjoyable and different, if brief, experience.