No One Left Behind!

Today we experienced a near tragedy - an important team member went overboard. We got ‘im back, but it was close. We almost lost a SunShower.

This is the little guy. He’s in recovery. The SunShower is basically a bag that is made out of thick magic plastic, and somehow heats up magically to about the same degree as a car interior on a hot day (Chris says it's something about solar radiation, but I say MAGIC). We have procured two of these to provide ourselves with an occasional fresh, warm shower. Each holds four gallons of water, and it may not seem like it, but two bodies can definitely get a good rinse from one bag-full. We’ve tested it out a couple of times, here on the boat and on a recent camping trip. They’re marvelous.

We were sailing along, heeled over fairly well on a starboard tack. Headed toward Treasure Island, we were going through the infamous wind tunnel known to SF Bay sailors as the “Slot” when Chris yells,

“Oh shit, we lost a SunShower!”

We’d settled them on the cabin top as we sailed, to let them heat up. We caught a quick wave, heeled over hard and then, PLOP, there it went. Well, the next few minutes were pretty chaotic. We immediately began to round up to come back to it, but failed to take into account how much we were getting bounced around by the waves and wind. Our sails were all swinging and flapping with the quick tack, and I was trying to keep the little bag in sight. I got out the boat hook, Chris pulled alongside, but I couldn’t pull it in. Then we decided to take down the sails and turn on the motor to give us a little more control. After wrestling with the main and jib for a few minutes, we got it under control and turned around to try to grab Sunny. I took the helm, and Chris had a shot with the boat hook. Again, no cigar. We almost gave up. The wind was howling and we couldn’t spot the SunShower in the choppy water. Then Chris saw it, just off the port bow. He lunged with the boat hook, snagged the handle, and pulled it onboard. Hurrah for Chris!

So another Bay sailing adventure under our belt, we’re tucked in here at Clipper Cove for the night.

In other news, we wore our almost matching new jackets today for the first time - don’t we just look soooo nautical?