What’s the point of working if you can’t ever blow off work? That’s my point … so on a recent Friday, Eric Hvalsoe, my dad and I decided to go sailing.
Eric took his HV 16 that he designed and built. I took Big Food, my 15 foot Matinicus Peapod. Both are cedar on oak, lapstrake with sprit rigs.
We launched at Kenmore, which has a one lane ramp surrounded by hard packed sand. Perfect for little boats. From there, you row down the narrow Samammish River into the north end of Lake Washington.
Video of the launch.
Leaving the beach.
Once you hit the wind line, off you go. We had a NE wind of about 10 knots. We took a southerly tack.
This photo is from big food, looking south on Lake Washington. The HV 16 is on the left.
Video from HV 16.
It took a bit, but we finally caught up to Eric. Because he was single-handing, he’d decided to put a reef in on his sprit sail. Seemed to be a good choice, as in the next photo, he may have actually fallen asleep at the tiller.
We continued south, maybe four or five miles. My dad has the helm. It’s just my job to shut one eye and take the photo, apparently.
We beached at a small park on the east side of the lake. I’m not sure what park it is, but it south of Bastyr University and north of Juanita Beach. Gotta watch for the big rocks as you land, but overall, a great place to stop for a bit.
My dad’s comment upon landing, “There a place around here that sells hamburgers?”
Genetics had kicked in, because I was wondering the same thing.
In the meanwhile, here’s Eric, his HV 16, and big food, on the beach.
A few minutes later, Eric wandered back from the woods and announced, “This is critical research and development!” (Apparently, Eric didn’t get much done in his boatshop on Friday, so this trip would be chalked up to “professional development.”)
In the next photo, you can see Mt. Rainier in the background.
So, we headed back out, and began beating north against the wind to get back to the launch. The sun went down around 6 p.m., or so, but the sailing picked up a bit.
We finally made it back around 8:30 p.m., well after sunset.
Overall, a pretty good reason to blow off work.
