Yesterday was a glorious summer day: low humidity, 85 degrees and sunny, with big, puffy white clouds.

I desperately want to go sailing, but Patti is still wary of just the two of us going out. I'm still not at my best, and neither was she. So in going to the boat today, Patti suggested we just sit at the dock. I countered with maybe motoring around a bit. Feeling guilty, she agreed. So off we went, Patti "relearning" our undocking procedures.

But something didn't go right; maybe Patti didn't push us sideways hard enough; maybe I didn't turn the wheel fast enough; maybe the current or the wind grabbed us. Instead of backing to the right, we went straight back. Ugh. I pushed us forward again, then tried to back out. But we had drifted to the right, and now it looked like we were going to brush against our neighbor Roger. Which we did a tiny bit before I started to back us out of the fairway. But now we were headed towards our dock instead of straight out. So I gunned it forward to stop us. At that point. I started swinging the boat around in a circle, eventually pointing us straight out. Nicely done if I do say so myself.

With that, we proceeded down the river in beautiful conditions. I suggested maybe just rolling out the genny and sailing a bit, but Patti nixed that. So we went over to the harbor to see if we could pick up a mooring. I suggested that if we couldn't, maybe we could anchor. A hard no on that one.

Fortunately, we found a mooring with a whip. I rather expertly manuvered us right up to it, where Patti picked it up and cleated us off quickly. We both were pleasantly surprised how easy that was.

Within a couple of minutes, the ladder was down, the float thing was in the water, and so were we. The water was great: not too cold, but still refreshing.

After that, I had a beer (first one in a few weeks), and we both read for about an hour and a half before some big clouds arrived that looked a little ominous. We easily docked, and I washed the muck from the mooring whip off the bow, and also tried to clean off the Lifesling cover. I used mold and mildew spray as well as boat wash. It looks better, but I think it's time for a new cover...

While it wasn't a sail, it was a great day on the water.

One big development: when we pulled into the marina, Patti noticed that the Oday was no longer in the parking lot; she had been launched! Derek told me that he didn't he would do so until mid-August, so I was a bit surprised. And sad. And happy (no more storage fees).

Before we left the dock for our trip, Patti noticed that the original Hukilau was actually berthed two slips down from us! She looked the same, but there was an electrical cord plugged into the shore power and snaked down the forward hatch. And the engine was not mounted. No idea what he is going to do there. It was a little strange seeing the boat there when we came back in, but I was concentrating on docking. Patti went over to look at her, but I didn't remember to do so before we left. Maybe I'll have another chance to say goodbye.