Diana and Joe's House of Only Orange Shirts 78th Sail

Orange is my favorite color.

My favorite regatta T-shirt is orange. It is from CORK 2001. The CORK in Kingston Ontario, not Cork in Ireland. It has a pretty picture of two sailboats on the front and a list of all the classes and events that are part of CORK on the back. Nary a sponsor's name in sight. Putting sponsors' names on T-shirts is so tacky. A classy shirt, if a T-shirt can be classy. Anyway it's much more classy than Edward's tangerine shirt.

Regular readers of this blog, all three of you, may also recall a post from a couple of years ago, You're So Vain, about a sailor and his orange hat. I wonder if you recognized the sailor that I was writing about? You're so vain, I bet you think this blog is about you, don't you, don't you?

Yeah, I love orange. I think it is a very yachtie color. And it harmonizes perfectly with my yellow PFD.

So I was thrilled when Mr. J. Bushkey won first prize in the Where Is This Sea? competition, said prize being name sponsor rights to my 75th sail of 2008, and he chose to name the 75th sail after the famous Diana and Joe's House of Only Orange Shirts.

Yes, yes, yes. I know that the 75th sail was actually named after the Bottleport Patent Pending Hydration Solution for Small Sailboats and Other Watercraft. That was a screw-up in the Proper Course Marketing Department. I tell you, those guys down on the 63rd floor are so inundated these days with requests to sponsor my sails that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. I fired the Director of Digital Relationship Marketing and two of the Senior E-Commerce Affiliate Marketing Coordinators for failing to handle Mr. Bushkey's prize correctly, so I hope that will serve as a message to the rest of them.

Where was I? Where am I? Oh yes. Orange shirts.

So it was actually my 78th sail of 2008 that was named in honor of the one and only Diana and Joe's House of Only Orange Shirts. Last weekend my son was staying with us, so on Saturday we headed out for a repeat of my 77th sail, Bristol Harbor to Mount Hope Bridge into Mount Hope Bay, and back. Except this time the wind was stronger, 15 knots gusting to 20, and from the opposite direction, the north. Otherwise, the conditions were identical.

As we sailed south into the mouth of the harbor we escaped the lee of the land and enjoyed the relatively unusual experience of planing near dead downwind in flat water. After catching our breath we reached back and forth for a while in the wide part of the harbor throwing up plumes of spray and the occasional whoop.

"So where shall we go?" I asked the little dude.

After some discussion we decided to go under the bridge and into My Bay. Wow. What an experience. The wind was blowing straight down the full length of the bay, seven miles of interrupted water. It was like some of the sailing I've done on the open ocean at major regattas. Big rolling waves, strong winds, hike your socks off weather. What a workout!

Once we had had enough upwind work we broad reached our way from one side of the bay to the other, over and over, riding those waves, until we reached the bridge. One of the best sailing experiences of the year.

By contrast, the beat back to the top of Bristol Harbor was pretty shitty. Wind coming off the land, all chopped up and shifty and variable. Slam dunk headers. Unpredictable gusts. It was impossible to get in a groove as the wind was changing strength and direction every few seconds. Ah well, you can't have everything.

So a good day out with my son. Congratulations to Mr. J. Bushkey for winning the competition. I never knew that any of my readers were experts in Titan geography. And a big shout-out for my sponsors, the renowned Diana and Joe's House of Only Orange Shirts.