Home again, Home again...

After the driving rain in LSIS Race #4, I wasn't sure about sailing home. The Volvo was sitting at the marina where I was, and the van was sitting at our home marina. Whether I sailed home or drove home it would work out the same.

I dropped off Judi and looked at the sky. It was cloudy everywhere. The rain was still coming down, the wind was quite strong, I thought about the car, I thought about the rain. I didn't want to pay to store the boat here until I could get back. Cheapness won out. I decided that since the weather was crappy I would just motor home.

After thanking Judi for her help at the races, I nosed Iris out of the marina, and into the wind on Cook's Bay. The motor chugged merrily along and the clouds cover went from dense to patchy. I decided to hoist the mainsail to help things along.

With the main up I was sailing quite nicely on a beam reach. Hmmm. Maybe I should let the genoa fly as well... Then I shut off the engine.

Iris jumped from 5.5 knots to 6 when I pulled up the engine, and for the rest of the sail back to JP we skimmed across the lake. This was her victory lap after a great weekend. We flew the length of Cook's bay, between Fox and Snake Islands, and all the back to JP at 6 knots. Pretty good. As we came out from between the islands I adjusted course to close hauled, and sat up on the high side to take a look around. It was perfect sailing weather. The wind had stayed when the rain left, and the sun even peeked through every now and again.

Iris ate up the miles back to JP. As we went I could see Tabasco and Blue Sky and Moonshadow sailing up ahead. I would be the last boat back, but that was OK. I was tempted just to stay out and play in the wind and waves.

by the time I was back in my slip, word had spread about the Saturday race, and I had folks congratulating me all around. It felt good. I went aboard Moonshadow for a quick lunch, then got help from a few other folks to button up Iris so I could get to Chuck's birthday party.

That was when I realized that SWMBO had the keys to my van. I had 2 choices. 1. Sail back to Cook's Bay, and drive the Volvo home. This would take hours, but be a load of fun. 2. Get a ride home and trade the Volvo keys for the van keys. Tabasco's skippers offered to drive me home to get my keys.

I unlocked the house, threw my keys on the table, and grabbed the spare key to the van, then got Tabasco's skipper to drive me back to the marina. At the marina I jumped into the van, and drove back home - I would quickly change and shower at the house, then meet the family at the birthday party.

All in a rush, I ran from the van to the front door and slammed into it. OUCH! The sucker was locked. I pulled out my keys, and... the spares only had keys for the vehicle, no house keys. All the doors were locked. I took a quick look at the second storey window that was open, and decided that I would save falling off ladders for another day.

I drove to the birthday and arrived soaking wet from the rain I had sailed through. What an intro. Everyone got to hear about the weekend races. Oh, and I arrived just as the cake was being served. Perfect timing!