A crazy Spring weather

[DesertAlbin736]

Normally this time of year heralds the onset of the torrid Arizona desert summers, where normal temps start topping 95 degrees on the way to 100s. This past weekend and going into this week it's been a good 20 degrees cooler than normal, with temps expected to stay below mid 70s all week. We put our boat in a guest slip at the Lake Pleasant marina last Friday for a few days while weld repairs get done on the trailer. Our sailing club held a sparsely attended raft up event on the lake which ended up with only three boats staying the night at anchor in our favorite cove, and two other boats just out for the afternoon. We went back in & docked at the marina on Sunday afternoon as the front that brought the cool temperatures in from the Pacific also brought afternoon winds in the teens with gusts to 23 knots. But we had a lot of fun & Margaritas. One fellow, (pictured at left in the first photo) brought dixie cups of Hagen Daz ice cream kept cold in a small cooler with dry ice.

Ron the ice cream man at left, with yours truly and the Admiral relaxing on board another member's Hunter 32. You can see a bit of freshly painted La Dolce Vita off to the right of the frame.

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Nice shot of our favorite cove. Later another boat tied up on the port side of the big sailboat. The Hunter was an interesting boat, the model called a Vision 32 with a very tall, fat, unstayed, aluminum keel stepped mast with no shrouds except for a two thirds fractional forestay for a small jib and a very big mainsail. A lot of boat for a 4 mile by 2 mile lake.

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Ron the 'ice cream man' sailed the three miles up from the ramp with this lateen rigged daysailer similar to but a be larger than a Sunfish.

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This is what desert sailing/boating is all about. The lake is near brim full after being pumped up from Lake Havasu plus the rains from a wet winter. We were wakened Sunday morning by the loud braying of wild burros that inhabit the surrounding area.

[WillieC]

"We were wakened Sunday morning by the loud braying of wild burros that inhabit the surrounding area."

That could be a description of the old school bus dropping off patrons of the Hummingbird Inn on Galiano. We were anchored in Montague Harbor for a few days last summer, along with La Dolce Vita, and were settling in for the night when we heard the plaintive strains of Johnny Cash's "I walk the Line" coming from a nearly swamped dink and its two clearly swamped occupants. They had just been dropped off of the Hummingbird Express we rode earlier that evening, an experience in the gulf islands that stands on its own. We struck up a conversation as they headed to their sailboat and found out they hail from Brownsville, way the heck down in our area near Bremerton. I was glad to see them safely aboard their boat given there was no way either of them could walk any line,

[DesertAlbin736]

A stop at Montague Harbour on Galiano Island & a ride on the Hummingbird bus to the Hummingbird Inn Pub is 'de rigueur' when cruising the Gulf Islands. We hope to go there again this summer, which would be our 4th time.

Hopefully a "newbie" to the Gulf Islands from our local sailing club will make it there too this time. Our sailing club friends Mark & Emily recently sold their Catalina 30 sailboat, which was too big to trailer & was land locked on Lake Pleasant, and bought an O'Day 272 that can be trailered and which they plan to trailer up to Blaine like we do. When we shared a chartered sailboat with two other couples on our first cruise in the San Juans in 2011 they went in with another couple on another sailboat at the same time. We didn't all cruise together all the time, but met up toward the end of the cruise & rafted up at Lummi Island on the last night. Back then we still had our own sailboat & didn't know Albin 25s even existed.

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So many good memories over the past eight years!