Annual Transgrape Series Race

Our friends Tim & Diann aboard their beautiful Catalina 28, Coquette.Transgrape Race course board. It's a long one!
Deck hands at the helm.
A day that blessings are made of! We started the day sailing in the annual Transgrape Race on Lake Grapevine with our friends, Tim & Diann, aboard their speedy Coquette. After a great race, Matty took me by Casa Bellamini before ending the evening watching our wedding video that had come in that day and it is uh-mazing! Thank you God for giving me this awesome man.

New Coquette, New Race Series

This weekend we spent time aboard our friends Tim & Diann’s new boat, Coquette. Today marked the 1^st race of the Grapevine Sailing Club's fall series & gave us all a great opportunity to learn to fly the spinnaker. While we didn’t take 1^st place, we did have a fun day of catching up and learning. We look forward to having them aboard Kaleo soon to get in some good sailing.

Amazing Day

The crew woke up to a great, yet hot, day with nice 12-15 mph winds. Some defining moments from Saturday:

• Started with a hearty breakfast

• Matt watched his wedding band slip of his freshly sun-screened hand and go kerplunk in the murky, muddy water at the slip! We assumed it was gone forever and made peace with the loss.
• Discovered new marina neighbor, Steve (who Christie coincidentally had met while running boat errands a few months ago and who happen to have bought a Pearson 365 that we looked at before buying our beloved, Kaleo!)
• Our surveyor (who we highly recommend if you need the best) and sailing friend/mentor, Drake Epple, stopped by to say hi. It's always a treat to see him and we look forward to him joining us for a sail soon.
• Explored the treasure trove, Boaters Resale Shop of Texas, near our marina
• A great sail in the Bay with enough heel to make us all a little nervous, spotted lots of jelly fish hanging out and kicked back with lunch, fun chats and discovered our new favorite sailing channel on Pandora
• Saw a freshly sunk boat just outside of the channel with the captain still aboard and coast guard just arriving
• Jeph spotted a net to which he suggested dredging for the lost ring. On the 6th shot, Jeph nonchalantly announced, "this is the one guys", Matt said a little prayer and the next thing we knew, Matt was spraying water through the mud to discover his ring the net! The pictures show Matt's excitement and amazement.

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• The guys spent the rest of the afternoon fitting the test companionway doors while the girls took a nap below in the cool A/C.

• We had a great dinner at Skippers, and then we went for a night motor (our 1st time to leave the slip after dark & navigate out of the channel). It was also our 1st time to see ocean phosphorescence lighting up the waves light underwater fireflies!
• Deck Schwab RedBeard even entertained us with a little recorder performance.

Four's Company

This weekend we hosted our first overnight couple and great friends, Jeph & Amy aboard Kaleo!

A few highlights from Friday:

• Road trippin' in Ph's BMW, "Beverly"
• Creating our pirate names (Deck Schwab RedBeard, 1st Mate Knuckles, Captain Stinky Feet, Admiral Christiana)
• Dinner at The Aquarium and walk around Kemah Boardwalk (shocked at feverishly feeding catfish)

Our First Friend Aboard

Our good friend, Maurice, joined us today for a great sail and to help Matt with some boat maintenance. We started the day by hoisting our captain up the mast to diagnose navigation light issues, went out for an afternoon sail (Maurice even took the wheel for the majority the time) and then wrapped up with the 1st oil change and relaxed over dinner and chats.

Volvo Ocean Race Gear ...

Straight from Sweden. Our friend Jenny, who works for Sony Ericsson, sent us a sweet backpack & shirt from her adventures in Marstrand (a port of call in The Volvo Ocean Race).

The shirt is that great wicking material & it just looks racy. I'm going to want to put Kaleo's rail in the water & sail fast every time I wear this. Though I do feel a little bad wearing this gear since I was cheering for team Puma, who took 2nd behind Ericsson 4, throughout the race.

Thanks Jenny for the great gear!

Golden in the Gold Rush Regatta!

An outstanding 1st place finish in the Gold Rush Regatta with our sailing mentors and friends, Tim and Diann, at the Grapevine Sailing Club. We are beyond grateful for them helping us to 'learn the ropes’ aboard their beautiful Beneteau First 235, "Coquette".

Winning Weekend

Thrilling, competitive 1st place finish sail race this evening with Matt, Tim & Diane aboard Coquette on Lk. Grapevine!

Sailing Before the Storm

Great, but short afternoon on the water! After serving this morning we headed out to Lk Grapevine to meet up with our captain & admiral, Tim & Diann aboard s/v Coquette. It was the kick-off of the summer race series but was called due to thunderstorms as we were tacking up to the start line. Ah, well ... another race in a couple weeks :o)

Reluctantly Returning

We woke up to our last morning aboard Thalia today and with heavy hearts we dingied ashore to return to land life. What a treat it has been to share this experience and we are so grateful to Lisa & Kirk for their generous hospitality, enlightening conversation & patience with our endless questions about their incredible lifestyle.
Spent the afternoon in D.C. walking the National Mall & Memorial Parks.
Meandered through the Smithsonian & caught a 3-D IMAX show
At just about the farthest walking point from where we parked, we got caught in a pretty rough thunderstorm. With a mix of running, walking to catch our breath, & laughing at the ridiculousness of it all - we returned to the car soaked like wet puppy dogs. Changed clothes, stopped for dinner, headed to the airport & slept like babies the entire flight home.

Downtown Annapolis

We spent the day exploring the "sailboat capital of the world", downtown Annapolis with Kirk and Lisa. We strolled through the local shops, made our way past "Ego Alley" and they treated us to lunch at McGarvey's along the city dock. We lounged on deck this evening with a stack of "TravelTopics" questions, learned more about each other, enjoyed the conversation and read as the sun set.