Almost Sailing

I was invited to go sailing with Bobby on the Bobcat, we prepped the boat, lowered the lift and the motor would not run. This motor is just like my old Tohatsu twin 8hp, and like mine it has been trouble free until now. At any rate we put it all back together and went to eat at Soul mans BBQ and did not actually sail even though we still had a good time.We did manage to get in several bicycle rides and I have still been working on my running. We went back to our favorite Fairfield State Park for the weekend and while on a ride I saw some wild pigs in the woods and turned back to Michele and said pigs and pointed, my intention was for us to stop and watch them but Michele apparently thought they were chasing us and sprinted off into the distance.

Happy Valentines Day Michele, these are just a few wildflowers that someone else had picked and left on the picnic table on the nature trail. She did get real flowers but they are at the house.

We had a great time camping and getting chased by the pigs, while the lake is now very low I seem to always catch a bass or two here. Michele sat in the sunshine and read a book while I fished and disrupted her to take a picture every once in a while. In a couple of weeks we plan on going to someplace new to us, either Goose Island on the coast or Colorado Bend in the Hill Country.

Dennis

A new Toy

Since we had sold our sailboat Michele and I had been looking at camping trailers, we like to camp and have always done so in our tent. After doing our research we decided that a camping trailer would fit the bill for several reasons, most importantly because we can store it at our home and anything larger would not allow that. We also like being able to be a lot more comfortable and it extends the weather window considerably.We looked at several and missed out on several because I always like to negotiate price. We finally purchased this 2001 Coleman Westlake and did OK on the price. When we arrived to look it over it broke a lifting cable, after looking closely I decided I could repair this if the price was reduced since otherwise it was in much better condition than others we had looked at.

Three hours of work and $50 later we head out to camp in our new RV and find everything works. It was nice to have heat, air, refrigerator and running hot and cold water. This unit also has a shower and toilet that work well but are not quite what you have at home. Most campgrounds have bathhouses, but these certainly will work if we need them. Our dog Sprocket immediately took over ownership but does allow us to use it.

We got in plenty of bike rides on the park roads at Fairfield State Park and I also did 28 miles of hard mountain bike trails and encountered 7 wild hogs out in the woods. In the pic above Michele is on a youth model mountain bike we borrowed from a friend to see if it fit her better than the full size ones. It was a good fit and she really likes this Trek MT 220 so we may just have to shop for one. We also started riding the tandem again training for the German fest Rally in April.

We will be home this weekend and ride with our bike club www.gdbclub.com and plan another trip in the new toy. While home we met with a lot of family at El Fenix to celebrate several birthdays including my own. As I write this we are getting some much needed rain for our garden. The onions and winter green are just starting to take off and as the weather warms we will keep planting in our garden that is much larger than last year.

Dennis

Sailing A Dana

I met Paul while bicycle riding with our club, he was a new rider on our DFW Airport ride but it was soon obvious he was not new to riding. While putting in about 60 miles we struck up a conversation and found we also had sailing in common, he is an accomplished sailor with a solo Atlantic crossing under his belt. I mentioned that if he ever wanted company on a day sail e-mail me and I would like to go. Another thing we have in common is that we are maybe a little more enthusiastic about sailing in cold weather than our wife's are.Well, this developed into a full day of sailing on his Pacific Seacraft Dana. a beautiful little ship that is a pleasure to sail and is maybe the best built small sailboat out there. I was also introduced to an auto pilot made by sailo-mat. This is a servo pendulum type of steering device that moves the rudder to keep the same angle to the wind, it works perfectly and is an ingenious device. On this cold windy morning it steered us while he made a pot of coffee on the gimbaled stove while close hauled into 15 mph winds.
Almost 6 knots close hauled with a reef in the main and this vessel is only slightly heeled over, most boats I have sailed or owned are heeled way over and require concentration to steer in these conditions.
Thanks for a great day Paul, and when you get ready to do some bright work let me know.

Dennis