Sunday - a time for boating, barbecues and music

Leigh Graham
Originally uploaded by Brite light photos.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Most Sundays in years past I would have been aboard Sabbatical today, either closing the boat up after a weekend cruise or frequently fixing whatever we might have broken while out sailing (or was about to break).

But this Sunday was stay and home and catch up a few things, one them rest and relaxation, which included listing to a lot of music - mostly on the IPod, of course.

One of the songs that just played is Perfidia, sung by Leigh Graham, a Toronto-based chanteuse who has a wonderful voice. She sings a lot of the old 1940s songs, as well as swing numbers and big band stuff. Her rendition of Hernando's Hideaway is not to be missed.

When Admiral Fox and I were in the east this summer, I tried to make arrangements to go see Leigh perform live with the Toronto Starlight group, but it turned out she was off the singing tour for most of the summer, pregnant with her first child.

What a warbler of lullabyes she will be!

The other song that just popped up is "As Time Goes By," sung by Dooley Wilson, shown in the photo here toasting with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in a famous scene from Casablana.

Dooley Wilson, Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman

Did I say a famous scene? All the scenes from Casablanca are famous, aren't they?

Right now dialogue from the final scene is playing with music in the background.

"Here's looking at you kid."

On stage 'The Music Man' as magical as it ever was

The Music Man
Originally uploaded by Brite light photos.

RIVER CITY, Iowa - I revisited River City, Iowa on Sunday in the company of Admiral Fox and the lovely and talented Miss Samantha Allen, who loved the musical as only an 8-year-old might.

It was at a small Sacramento venue called The Music Circus and with the play/musical performed in a theater-in-the-round, the music took center stage.

I had forgotten how many great songs - songs still showing up on playlists on FM radio - The Music Man has.

The easy one to remember is 'Seventy Six Trombones," but "Trouble In River City, Goodnight My Someone," and "Lida Rose," all are stuck in my head today.

I saw the film, The Music Man when it came out in 1962 and have viewed it a number of times since, always enjoying the late Robert Preston's characterization of Prof. Harold Hill, the erstwhile charlatan who comes to town to sell band instruments and uniforms, romance the librarian (played by Shirley Jones) and eventually try to scram with the help of his friend, played by Buddy Hackett.


Shirley Jones

I thought I would have trouble letting the stage actors take over the roles after the great performances in the movie. But I was wrong, by the intermission, I was as smitten with the actress playing Marian the Librarian as I ever was with Shirley Jones. And the actor playing Harold Hill became Harold Hill quite easily after a few songs and scenes.

Granddaughter Samanatha said she's ready for any musicals we want to take her to from now on.

Me, too.


Robert Preston with Ron Howard and Shirley Jones

Ship, house & sailboat meet in the Delta

Ship, house & sailboat meet
Originally uploaded by Brite light photos.

STOCKTON, Calif. - Sabbatical's voyage to the California Delta (about 75 miles from our slip in Alameda) last week was eventful for several reasons.

1. We had record runs in both directions, sailing faster than I thought Sabbatical was capable of.

2. We thought we had an engine room fire that had the crew running around with fire extinguishers and wondering exactly how cold the water might be if we had to swim to shore.

3. After the fire turned out to be only smoke from a locked brake on the engine, I discovered that the aft cabin sole had water - a lot of water - which turned out to be coming from an exhaust house that had slipped a clamp.

Many glasses of wine were imbibed that evening.

But in addition to our ship's adventures, we also sat at anchor near Mandeville Island for a few days, watching big ship traffic along with other sailboats and jet skis out in the channel. Also, there was a large raftup of houseboats on the shore with some very interesting sunbathing activity on the rooftops. (Interesting sunbathing? Hmmmm...)

The photo at the beginning of today's entry is of an arguably close call, in which a sailboat got caught between the house on the shore and the grain freighter in the 100-foot wide channel. Not much of a contest if the sailboat couldn't get out of the way.

On the way north, we made an overnight stop at the Vallejo Yacht Club, where my friend of 36 years, Jim McCarthy greeted us. The entrance is narrow (see photo below) but we snuck in fine without even hitting bottom. The next morning, we snuck out fine, but about 15 minutes early and helped the Yacht Club with its dredging project by churning up a 20-foot swath of mud.


Vallejo Yacht Club entrance

On our sail up from Vallejo to Mandeville Island (west of Stockton, Calif.) the wind came up - really came up to over 30 knots in gusts - and at lunch time we rolled up our headsail and sailed with just a mainsail. We still made record time getting to the anchor and were glad that we only had one sail to deal with when we hit the twisting narrow channels late in the day.

Unfortunately, that wind was also pretty cold until almost the point where we anchored.


Sylvia and Lorraine on the bow - in jackets because of the cold

The trip home was equally fun - sort of - with blustry winds in our face the first day, which encouraged us to put in to the marina at Pittsburg, a new facility that is on its way to be a first-class operation. With our crew and amigos, Dan and Lorraine Olsen we found a Mexican restaurant that is almost worth driving to from Sacramento. Almost - it would be more than an hours drive.

In touring downtown, we found a movie theatre that is undergoing some kind of renovation. Dan couldn't wait and wanted a tour and ticket right then. We convinced him it would be awhile before the girl behind the counter served him.


Dan Olsen tries (unsuccessfully) to buy a ticket

The next day we motored the rest of the way back to Alameda - 48 miles - and instead of the turmoil and high winds when we left, we crossed what looked like a mountain lake, with hardly a ripple of wind.


'Lake' San Francisco

Getting the Bud boat ready for the 4th of July

Michael paints the Bud boat
Originally uploaded by Brite light photos.

VALOIS, New York - It's called the Bud boat because the Schamel family who gave it to us - yes, gave it to us - let their teenagers use it for years and somewhere in all that they put decals of the Budweiser frogs on the engine, and, presumably, imbibed a little Budweiser beer in the boat also. The decals are still on the engine, more than a little faded. But no beer cans were in evidence when we picked up the boat two summers back.

This week as we rolled it out and cleaned it, we decided to give it a patriotic paint job, a red hull, blue trim and stars on the bow.

Thank God for Rustoleum paints. They cover up a multitude of dinks, scrapes, dents and even a few spiders who didn't get washed off.

The boat leaks some, though I used an all purpose sealer on the worst spots that might stanch the flow more this year. The 18-hp Evinrude is ready to go, too. The boat zips along quite nicely with that engine. It's overpowered, for sure, but I spent many years driving such rigs on Lake Chautaqua (and only flipped once), so I'm ready for another Bud boat season.

In two weeks, Admiral Fox and I will take a sojourn over to Jamestown for the 40th reunion of the Class of 1966 of Southwestern High School. We will not go by Bud boat. Instead, we will take my late mother-in-law's 1992 Buick Century, a white four-door hoover with enough squeaks and groans that it sounds about the same as I do when I roll out of bed in the morning.

The Bud boat is ready, the Buick is ready. It's summer vacation.