Fire in the hole!

We wondered why Zorro called at seven in the morning. Now we know.

Early this morning, he was awakened by pounding on his front door and then by a whole bunch of commotion with neighbors gathering and the fire department arriving and crashing through his driveway and into the back yard.

It turns out that the building in his backyard that houses his gym and sail loft had caught fire. Possibly an electrical wire had been dislodged or damaged and ignited a couple of boxes containing two good spinnakers. The resulting fire, soot, and smoke, along with the response by the fire department, led to further damage, but at least the fire was put out quickly, before it could spread into the building's roof or ignite a nearby gas line or neighboring structures. It's also a good thing that Intrepid's bottom paint wasn't near the fire. And, very fortunately, none of the local felines were inside the gym, including "Mama Smokey", who'd recently given birth to a litter.

So, instead of going in to work as usual, Zorro wound up giving news interviews and calling to set up repair estimates. That's probably okay, though; the sailing weather isn't expected to be good until tomorrow along with Sunday and perhaps Saturday.