When we came to San Francisco, I contacted the San Francisco Yacht club to learn more about Mahdee’s history. We knew that she was owned by a family who were members there during the 1960’s and hoped to learn more about Mahdee’s adventures with this family–or at a minimum to learn more about her 1967 Transpac and any San Francisco races she’d participated in as part of the SFYC. So, it was wonderful today to get a call from Jim, the son of the gentleman who owned Mahdee in the 1960’s. He has many fond memories and pictures, too! We’ve made a loose arrangement to bring Mahdee to the SFYC (likely week after next) for a few days. We can meet with Jim and see a few pictures as well as let Jim see Mahdee as she is today. Jim also tells us that SFYC hosts a wooden schooner event sometime in August–so perhaps we’ll be able to participate in that event as well.

In the meanwhile, we’ll be heading back up to the San Francisco Delta, quiet anchorages, and hopefully a little more warm weather than we’ve had here in the Bay for the past week.

“There is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In or out of ’em, it doesn’t matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that’s the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don’t; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you’re always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you’ve done it there’s always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you’d much better not.”

Spoken by Ratty to Mole in Wind in the Willows a children’s book by Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932).

Ah, finally, alone with Mahdee. David left for Florida on Tuesday. He and his sister are having grand times fishing, boating, swimming, et al, in the Florida heat. Mahdee and I are have grand times doing pretty much nothing. Every day I work a bit on her foresail cover –until the winds get too much and then I either sand a bit of something that needs a bit of varnish or I put another coat of varnish on something that I sanded and varnished the day before and is ready for another coat. Very nice. The routine can change to where I clean something, then try to work on the cover, then do some varnish. That’s how it goes. In the evenings I watch a Redbox DVD “chick flick” that I know I could never get David to watch with me. I also have been catching up on my correspondence as well as Wooden Boat Forum reading and posting there. David will be back on Tuesday. So, Mahdee and I are having great times until he returns.