Robin's Sailboat - Part I

Ahoy, Mates! Earlier this week, Robin (my mother-in-law) purchased a small sailboat. I drove down to Georgia with her to pick it up. Driving there was fun - I enjoy driving a pick-up truck with a gangly stick-shift and it is always great to spend time with a family member, especially relatively rare one-on-one time. An added blessing was a spectacular rainbow seemingly rooted in the neighborhood where we were to pick up the sailboat!

Not the actual rainbow we experienced, but beautiful nonetheless

I don't mean to boast, but I've had some experience as ballast on a sailboat. For a couple of summers, I was ballast on on a ~30-ft sailboat, occasionally seen racing at Lake Pickwick (circa 1995). We usually (always?) came in last, but we had lots of fun. In fact, the boat's name,"Driftwood", sort of captured our approach to sailing. During one of those summers, I recall a fast midnight sail that was sooooo surrealistic. I recall motoring out to open water for sailing with Jimmy Hendrix blasting on the stereo. I recall extending myself from the bow, wind briskly blowing thru my hair and yelling, "I'm King of the World"...wait, I'm sorry, I think that might have been Leonardo DeCaprio in Titanic. My mind wanders again.... Anyway, despite my extensive experience as ballast, we need help with sailing! I am looking forward to learning. Robin's teenage son took a sailing class several years ago, so Captain Nic is currently our expert.

16.5 Capri (similar to Robin's Sailboat)

Robin's sailboat is a 16.5 ft Capri. I think this is a great size for learning! In future posts, I hope to show action photos of family & friends sailing and water-skiing with Robin's Sailboat.