Heron and Capri at Tempe Town Lake

Capri sloop easing back to the boat ramp at Tempe Town Lake on Friday, November 27, 2009.



During "Black Friday", with cars whizzing by on the Red Mountain freeway, a seemingly unexpected shopper checks out Tempe Town Lake adjacent to Arizona State University and under the flight path for Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport: a Great Blue Heron. The heron doesn't seem to mind too much that people are nearby, as can be seen in the background, so long as the fishing is okay.

Mini update here and there and sort of on the water

Today we drove to Elephant Butte Lake to visit with "Zorro" and "Penzance". They had been working on Penzance's Etchells and Carol Anne's; Zorro had repaired some keel nicks and started applying VC-17 bottom paint. Carol Anne and I caught up with them as they returned to the marina from a sail on the lake on Zorro's boat, "Constellation".

We had dinner at Casa Taco before we had to return north (we'd not made preparations for spending the night).

In the meantime, this weekend Gerald had sailing practice on Saturday at Tempe Town Lake next to the Arizona State University and Sun Devil Stadium. However, he had to quit sailing and switch to one of his other "hats" before the wind became strong enough to capsize some boats. As it turned out, he was the only ASU sailor at today's practice who was trained to operate the safety motorboat, so that's what he wound up doing when the wind became strong enough to start getting sailors wet.

By the time most people read this, Sunday's regatta will probably be history; it's a regatta weekend at Tempe Town Lake for the Arizona Yacht Club and the ASU students plan to be part of the fun.