Last week, the night before I was scheduled to leave Davis for Santa Barbara, Tom, Cody, and I were at Burgers and Brew, eating away our sorrows of departure. As we were walking back to Cody’s house, we ran into our former professor Raúl Aranovich, who just arrived back in Davis from his honeymoon. I mentioned I was leaving tomorrow and that he promised me months ago that he would take me out on his boat. After several joking requests for a boat ride before I left, it became apparent that we would actually go.
At 10 a.m. the next day, I walked up to his house, fully decked in my boat shoes, linen shorts, and Kangol hat. I tried to find a blazer, but since I was moving, my more boaty apparel was already in Santa Barbara.
We packed up some food and water, then we hopped into his car and drove to the marina in Vallejo. After unpacking the food and supplies, we walked down the marina until stopping at a cute little boat named Nonika. We tied up ropes to sails, he explained and I forgot all the jargon and knots, and we took sailing pictures:
Proof that yes, I went sailing with my professor:
It was a perfect day for sailing. There was just enough wind to make it a pleasant jouney, but not so much that it would be miserable.
If you’ve never been sailing, one of the first things you notice is that you rarely spend time with the boat level. Most of the time, you’re at an angle something like this:
It was a totally amazing experience, and now I’m looking to find some sailing buddies in Santa Barbara. If you know of anyone who needs a deckhand, send them my way.
Of course, one of my favorite parts of the entire journey was that I finally got to use my boat shoes for their intended purpose. I was so excited about this, I think it was starting to get on the captain’s nerves a bit. Nevertheless, I still had to take a picture of the event:
More pictures can be seen here.
