Aldebaran
A nice sail!
30 May 2005
Aldebaran berths at Brickyard Cove.
Photos courtesy of Karsten and Tom.
I lightened areas of this picture, to show the view and the rigging.
Our model shows how to sit safely windward, while you admire
the San Francisco waterline and fresh air.
Some people smile happily upward (that's me) ...
Some people gaze pensively downward ...
| I can't for the life of me remember a single name of a single woman except Nancy! Nancy is great, she is always interested in what you're doing, handing you cucumbers for your sandwich, telling funny stories, and then feeding you some more. Everyone has an X-power, you know, like the X-men? Nancy's seems to be that her cooler of food never slides on the table, no matter how rolling the salon gets. The young man's X-power is shooting blue laser beams from his fingers. |
| I think there was a Mariel, a Bailey, an Elle, and an Elizabeth somewhere onboard. But by the end of the voyage, I was so hopelessly confused, some of the exasperated young women were actively misleading me, when they weren't smilingly refusing to answer! Anyway, here is a typical cluster of diabolically amusing and nice people. |
| The blue laser beams are again visible in this picture, happily pointing to the right of the camera. The Junior on the left has ambivalent feelngs about high school, which makes her pretty cool in my book, but drinking a grapefruit soda makes the world seem like a better place. The hugger is happy that the huggee is about to take a nap, or watch out later! Everyone smiles at the Captain, just to be safe. |
| (Photo lightened to show Russ's natty outfit.) Russ emailed me five years ago, a Darwin Awards fan excited that I lived nearby. He invited me sailing. I love to sail! For five full years, I intended sail with him. But maybe he was another Internet nutcase? So I vacillated. Finally I called him. "Russ! Let's go sailing!" "Worse luck, my boat's in drydock!" Fast forward two months. "Want to come to my Kaboom! party?" "Worse luck, I'm otherwise engaged!" A week passes. Russ calls. "Want to sail on a 70' schooner?" And here I am. |
Here I am!
| This boat was built by Hayden Brown. Literally. He has been working on the boat for 35 years, and it's almost done. He made the dowels supporting the rail, the varnished tackle (?) set with British ha'pennies, the spars and booms and the tiller. The boat was built by Hayden. |
| Hayden has been sailing since childhood. Here, he looks up at the sheets, seeking a course that fills them. In the foreground, you see more of the beautiful wood that is Aldebaran's skin and bones. |
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Bob hugs the youngest person on the boat, a lovely young lady that might be named Mariel. |
Happy sailors, or chokehold demonstration?
You be the judge.
Aaron, on the left, never stopped grinning.
Hayden, on the right, never stopped grinning.
I kept expecting to see fish caught in his teeth.
It was a lovely day to sail.
Karsten, on the right, took many of these pictures.
Parker of Parker Piece fame.
He made the cannon Aldebaran uses in battle.
| I didn't know anyone, so it was disconcerting to encounter this large, bearded sailor in the parking lot. What rogues and rapscallions had I fallen in with? Fortunately, Kevin looks more pirate-y than he acts! Check out the gorgeous wood pulley on the right, and the well-varnished tiller on the left. |
| We sailed past the Golden Gate Bridge more than once. We sailed, in fact, all over the bay. Aldebaran reached nearly 11 knots, coming back "downtown" from behind the Bay Bridge. |
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