My friend, Joe Castaldi, built a beautiful, sixteen foot gaff-rigged Melonseed Skiff from the original plans. He sent word he was planning to launch her for a maiden voyage down at the Hood River Marina, so I showed up yesterday, bright and early to witness the event.

The weather was perfect, shorts and shirt-sleeves with a faint but fairly constant breeze from the east.

Joe launched and with his friend Pablo as crew, hoisted sail and commenced sea trials. Christened Yolinda, the little green skiff proved herself both lively and handy, moving easily across the flat waters with only a zephyr to scoot her along.

After about an hour, Joe brought the boat in and Pablo disembarked. I gladly filled his place as crew and we did a few laps of the boat basin. What a joy to be aboard a sailboat again! Thanks, Joe!

We helped Joe load his boat on his trailer and I met my brother and his wife up at my house. Dave and Kel had their kayaks with them. I backed my truck over to my kayak and Dave helped me load it. Then I followed them up to Kingsley Reservoir.

The wind had almost completely died. Mt. Hood reflected across the flat water of the lake. We paddled across the calm, clear water, trout jumping all around us. There were a handful of anglers  along shore and a few more in boats, competing with the bald eagles and osprey for fish.

In between paddling we would drift and  chat, drowsily soaking up the sun, trailing a hand in the cool water. We spent the rest of the day like that and I really can’t think of any way it could have been improved. I must say, I had a lovely day on the water.