Melissa’s birthday was subdued this year by the fact that our son, Andrew, had his tonsils scooped out on Thursday. The surgery was a success and Andrew is recovering nicely, but as you might imagine, our attention was elsewhere.

Andrew, pre-surgery, modeling the latest in hospital couture. Ellen approves.

By Saturday we were all ready to relax and celebrate by making Melissa wear an amusing hat while listening to our dirge-like rendition of Happy Birthday.

Melissa, wearing the traditional birthday sombrero of our people. Note how most photos of this woman seem to include a hammock.

My gift to Melissa this year was a watercolor of our Cal 34, Moonrise,  painted by Alex Kimball. We met Alex at a Puget Sound Cruising Club event a few months back and a mutual friend suggested that he might have time for this project. As you can see, Alex captured Moonrise beautifully.

Watercolor of Moonrise by Alex Kimball

Perhaps one of the reasons Alex was able to so faithfully render the Cal 34 is because as a young man he actually worked the at Cal/Jensen factory building these boats.  Spooky, huh?

In addition to the watercolor, Melissa got Jimmy Cornell’s World Voyage Planner [amazon_link id=”1408140292″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]

And one of our local favorites, the Waggoner Cruising Guide [amazon_link id=”1932310452″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]

The World Voyage Planner is Jimmy Cornell’s latest work and looks to be a terrific addition to our sailing library. With just the one copy, I can see conflict brewing already.