A few weeks ago, we had a going away party for Debbie at the pool

A friend from our Sausalito Ferry commuting days, Ken, asked about the Hobie, “did I take her out”

Seeing someone with interest in going out, knowing that was my huge hurdle because Matt no longer could help rig her nor would it be always safe for him if conditions went rough, was huge

He was an angel from heaven sliding down a rainbow right onto the Hobie

Flash forward after a few wind and condition text exchanges, the conditions were just right on Tuesday this week

At first the plan was to launch at the Sausalito Boat Ramp, right across Bridgeway from my old office

But then I looked at the conditions at Cavello Point, technically Horse Shoe Cove, which is right under the Golden Gate Bridge

Winds were consistent 4 mph, gusting to 9 mph at 11 am, going up to steady 11 mph, gusting to 19 mph at 2 pm.

19 mph for this boat is pushing the limits, so the thought was get out there early, come back before the tide starts to flood at 1:30

It was a gorgeous day, warm enough, full sun, water wasn’t so cold to be something that we even thought about

We rigged and dumped her in, sailed easily enough out of the cove

Then we hit the bay, Ken says when we are in the cove “we are going to get some wind for sure once we are out of the cove”

I could see the wind lines too, I was soooo excited

Whoop whoop I yelled

We hit the bay, and it wasn’t long we started hitting some waves

The waves had pattern sometime…….and sometime they didn’t

We were bobbing and weaving, full sail, moving ahead

A couple of times we hit a wave just right and it was “whoooo Nelly, hold on!”

It took a few minutes, who knows really how long, but we cleared the disorganized waves and hit an area with more organized waves, solid wind

We were out there, sailing, getting wet! Whoo hoo! I was yelling from lungs full of sea fresh air

Every cell of my body was happy, just like in Tahiti

We sailed half way to Angel Island, then pointed to Alcatraz

Then we looked at our watch, looked at the conditions, and Ken rightfully said “I don’t think we should try to sail back into Cavello, the conditions will be too rough”

I agreed, and Ken had proven his sailman’s talents in the moments before as we weathered the rougher stuff

So we decided to sail up Richardson’s Bay, then put out on the Sausalito Public Boat Ramp

Easy enough to tie up there and uber to the car and trailer

So that’s what we did

Sailing on Richardson’s Bay was much more flat, we had wind, we could go anywhere because our draft was so shallow

Absolutely epic day

As I write this blog, as I think about the time in Tahiti that introduced me to this boat, as I think about this epic day of sailing her on the San Francisco Bay, I am reminded that is because of Matt

Had he not booked that awesome trip to Tahiti, been willing to jump on that Hobie that day, I would never have found this thing that makes me so utterly happy

Sailing her isn’t purely selfish, it honors the man I married, the man I love so so deeply

It rejuvinates me so that I can be there, like last night, when things were very hard

When I asked myself if I might actually be watching him die

When that day does happen, hopefully not soon, I will have Matt with me each and every time I sail the Hobie

He will be with me as I sweep the Redwood Tree droppings off the cover and prep her to go out again

He will be with me………

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