LAUNCHING SCAMP Wildflower from the beach in Tomales Bay
This is just a short video of another wonderful day on Tomales Bay in California sailing SCAMP #330 Wildflower. This time my lovely wife Diana is with me. We also have the amazing Arya the sailing dog! This was her first time on the boat. Hmm. Let’s just say she prefers her feet firmly on the ground. She pretty much huddled in the cuddy or under my feet. Well, she’ll adjust…
SCAMP is the perfect boat for these waters. Here we are launching from the beach after a lovely picnic lunch. This boat is so easy to handle for this kind of thing. Beaching is one of the reasons I built her. The winds were variable from the south with gusts to above 20 at times. So, I put in 2 reefs before leaving the beach. The sail has 3 reef points. It is like having 4 sails onboard at all times. On the way to the beach I put in the first reef while under sail. Very easy to do with practice. I “park” the boat, which is to say luff the sail and lash the tiller to leeward, then drop the sail, put in the reef by quickly cleating off the tack and clew, raise the sail and we are off. I put in the second reef before leaving the beach. Probably overkill, but easy to shake out if needed. I wanted a nice safe ride for my wife and dog.
I don’t usually sail barefoot for fear of cutting my feet in the boat, but I forgot my water shoes despite my checklist! All went well.