Talkin' Shit About A Pretty Sunset

March 8th: first sail of the season on the Lonnie Bruner II. Sadly, no pictures, but do have my whomper (185 genoa) in my basement with an 8-foot rip in it. Damn, I always fly that thing when there's too much wind and the boat is heeling over at 25 degrees and the weather helm is working my flabby, winter-starved muscles.

It was a good quick sail -- not another sailboat on the water, just a small fleet of crabbing boats heading for Galesville for some reason.

And this winter was hard on the boat. My depthfinder transducer is broken off, the CD player got waterlogged and don't work, the head intake valve froze up and broke, and now this 8-foot tear in my most powerful sail.

I gotta say, I like sailing better in warm weather. In the fall, I quite like the colder weather coming on and the hot bowl of Dinty Moore cooking in the cabin while the leaves blow by, but I really love seeing other boats on the water, catching crabs at the dock, and trolling my two lines in hopes of catching a rockfish for dinner. All that's just around the corner right now.

And I hope I can pull together everyone for my annual guys' trip. I'm having some difficulty coordinating the usual suspects to commit to a weekend in May, but it'll work itself out -- even if I have to take everyone out sans toilet or radio or big whomping genoa sail.