Alfred -
Thanks for the complements, however due to too much sailing and not enough painting, she looks better from some ways off.

Yes, I'm probably either single or doublehanded in the picture, the crew is often the 7 year old daughter. Like I've written before, her favorite crew station is down below monitoring the DVD player while serving cheese and grapes to the bloating helmsman above.

However, last night, an hour before the far too early sunset, we snuck out into the just passing rain showers. Enjoyed a quiet sail just outside Monterey harbor. A very light southeast breeze and flat water allowed a sneaking drift through herds of jellys. There must have been some recent jelly hanky panky as countless crumb-size jellys, armadas of biscuit-size and a few pie-size could be seen. [I must be hungry.] We hung over the rail peering into their slowly passing home. A spinnaker, easier to unpack and fly from the stem than a jib, found just enough of the rain shower's last puffs to stand proudly. The jellys found the sun and pumped towards it, obscured low behind the clouds to the west.

I think you could steer by the jelly's pointing. But of course you can yourself find the sun almost as well. It might come in handy in some special situations. Perhaps too much partying causes one to lie with the head and mouth over the rail. With the feet on the tiller, and eyes on the jellys, you could steer a fair course. After an hour of this the sky's earlier glow of pink and orange darkened. The young navigator flipped on the lights while we putted home making a game of finding winking buoys.

The girl ended her school break this morning as rain showers have ended the sunny weather. david