Friday afternoon, Sweetie and I both arrived home grouchy and cross. We barely had a kind word to say to each other. Thank goodness we had planned to slip the dock lines and head out to our favorite anchorage.

It wasn’t too windy, for a change, and the bay was relatively calm. We set the hook in 12 feet of water right outside the
Brisbane sea wall and settled down with our well deserved cocktails to enjoy the glorious moon rise from the flying bridge. Dinner was from the grill, easy and delicious.

We woke after a blissful nights sleep on Saturday morning with a list of chores that needed to be tackled. After a leisurely breakfast, I went to work with the vacuum in the forward cabin. The recent heat wave had brought in clouds of dust. Sweetie was busy sanding on the never-ending bright work when our neighbors Bob and Diane on board Jole’ Blon stopped by with a delivery of fresh eggs. I was in the midst of a cleaning frenzy and didn’t even know we had visitors until Sweetie came down and showed me the eggs. I was in my usual cleaning frenzy attire (meaning; stark-naked), but I told him to catch Jole’ Blon before she got too far away – I wanted to go for a boat ride! To hell with cleaning and sanding!

Luckily, Sweetie was able to catch them before they went into light speed. Quick as a wink I had my teeth brushed, hair combed and was dressed in clean shirt and shorts. Bob and Diane picked us up, Roy Roger’s style - on the fly - for a quick tour of the bay. I have cruised all over the bay on every kind of boat but I will never turn down a boat ride. Jole’ Blon is a Cabo 31 sport fishing boat that skips across the water like the wind. I don’t know what her top end speed is, but we were zooming along at a comfortable 37 knots. Bob had her zipping through the fishing fleet and around Hunter’s Point before I even had a drink in my hand. Life is damn good!

We slowed past the ferry fleet at Pier 39, then picked up speed again to head under the
Golden Gate
Bridge and towards Point Bonita. The Potato Patch just outside the gate was rough with a big swell running from the north west so Bob decided to turn back and spin thorough the anchorage at
Angel
Island. Surprisingly, there were many vacant mooring balls and the dock was almost empty.  Why is it never empty when we bring the Dancing Dragon up to Ayala Cove?

Bob didn’t stop at
Angel
Island, but we did cruise past Sam’s restaurant in Tiburon. A
Hinckley picnic boat beat us to the last empty slip, so we headed over to the Estuary. Bob dodged the many sail boats that were tacking up the Estuary for a day on the bay. He did an admirable job of docking right in front of Scotts Seafood Restaurant, which isn’t an easy task with so many witnesses peering out of the big picture windows. We left Jole’ Blon and walked through

to Pescadore Restaurant where we were treated to a fabulous fish lunch. Golly, I love boating, almost as much as I love eating…

After every plate was licked clean, we sauntered back to Jole’ Blon, slipped her lines and headed for home. The trip back was boisterous but quick. The wind had picked up but the stable little Cabo just skipped across the waves. What a delightful craft! No wonder people love to fish, if they can travel in this kind of style.

I can tell you with confidence that a boat ride beats cleaning, any day of the week. Now, if I could only teach the cat how to use the vacuum…