Sailing...

A beautiful day in the Black Hills yesterday - the temp pushed up into the 80s, lots of glorious sunshine. It was "Free Weekend at the State Parks"; we decided to take a drive down to Angostura (where we used to keep our boat slipped when we lived here) to see if any of our sailing buddies were around. We saw a couple boats we recognized as we walked down the docks. Walking up to our buddy Steve's boat, Northern Girl, there were people on it... but not Steve. I asked if Steve and Jan might be around; "They just headed out with Scott on his boat." They asked if I wanted to use the VHF to call them. Sure. After a short radio conversation, Steve called me on our cell phone, "See that Catalina at the head of the dock? Go get on it and bring it out."

I told him I wasn't going to get on someone's boat I didn't know and he said, "That's ours!"

"Nice boat! I'm still not going to take it out." He said they'd be right in.

We had a great reunion with Scott, Steve, and Jan, then Steve suggested we go out on his boat. It wasn't what we were planning, but it was good to see our friends, and we haven't been on a boat for several months... OK!

It was a great afternoon. The wind came up for some nice sailing, the lake level is the highest I've seen in the past 8 or 9 years. Steve and Jan's new boat is a Catalina 27 - lots of room, very comfortable, and a great sailing boat. Good conversation and some fine sailing... nice way to spend the day.