Yesterday's sailing.
All, I too was on the water yesterday but in much lighter air. It was the occasion of the third annual Eye Can Sail, an informal meeting of several women's groups in Marina del Rey who have worked hard to make this event happen and get bigger each year. This was my second time to participate. The purpose of it all it to get visually impaired and blind folks out on the water for the day and for many of them to get out at all. My best guess is that we had 20 or more folks respond to the invitation. They were assigned to a fleet of close to 10 sailboats, ours included. We left the Santa Monica Yacht Club a bit after 10AM and headed north to round the Santa Monica bell buoy and visit all the harbor seals sunning on it. My one blind crew and three other "sighted buddies" thoroughly enjoyed all of it and by close to 3PM we were back at the Club for raffle drawing, and food, all of which was provided for skippers crew and blind guests at no cost. I had my guide dog in training with me and the only other working dog and her blind handler was assigned my boat for the second year in a row. As an aside, in many cases if a blind person has a sighted buddy available for an errand or a day out, they may elect to leave their guide dog at home. Additionally only 7% of the visually impaired and blind community elect to use guide dogs, thus the fact that I had the only working dog aboard yesterday. Winds were extremely light and only finally picked up after we returned to the slip (naturally). So we combined light air sailing with sporadic use of the engine throughout. All in all, it was a wonderful day and we all had a great time. Cheers to all, Glyn Judson, E31 hull #55, Marin del Rey, CA