Parent's playday- SAILING!
My childrens' wonderful day care has decided to offer parent's play day occasionally on Saturdays. Today was their first one and I took advantage of it, which allowed me to go sailing on the Virginia Lee. I use the term 'sailing' loosely, since the wind was nowhere near the 5-10 knots that the local weather guessers had predicted. Other than the lack of wind, the day was pretty nice for late November. While the sun was out it felt like it was in the 70's, when the sun was obscured by clouds it felt about 20 degrees cooler.
We left the marina and headed out to the bay. Once out there, dad and Mike decided to give the spinnaker a try. I watched them rig the spinnaker since I had never seen them try it before. I took some pictures of it as well. We sailed for a while with it up, but the further we got from shore, the less air we seemed to have. Finally they decided to forget the spinnaker and turn on the motor. If the weather wasn't going to be conducive to sailing... perhaps fishing. There were plenty of croweded boats out in the channel and seagulls circling the air, all intent on catching whatever sportfish were swimming underneath. Dad dropped a line in the water. I went below deck and fished out a Dean Koontz novel (Odd Thomas) that I'd been working on for a while. There was more than enough time for me to finish the last 50 pages of the novel. Not enough time or luck for dad to lure a fish onto his line this time though.
Dad and Mike decided that the wind had died down for the day and attempting to sail back in would be pretty much useless, so we turned away from the channel and began motoring back in. We had almost reached the entrance to the harbor when the wind picked up to almost 10 knots, soooooo we turned around and raised the head sail back up. Dad and Mike let me take the helm which, surprisingly, I did OK with. Usually I'm too nervous around them to want to take that much responsibility with the boat. Of course, usually we are in the middle of an important race and I'm terrified I'll screw something up and ruin our finish. It was really nice to go out with such a small crew and no racing pressure. I actually felt like I contributed instead of just sitting on the rail for extra weight. I missed having my sailing buddies out there with me... but today was really nice and I learned more about sailing than I had in all the races this summer.
After sailing, dad invited me out for lunch. It felt almost like a continuation of the after sail dinners on Wed nights from the summer... a tiny twinge of nostalgia for me, so I called Greg to see how he was doing. We talked for about 10 minutes or so. He seems to be doing well and keeping busy with many projects around the house during his transfer leave.
After that I decided to burn all my pictures on my camera's SD card to a CD. I know I've said I'd add some pictures to here. You'll have to have patience. I'll get around to it sooner or later. I also printed some of the pictures so that I could hold them in my hands and look at them a bit more closely. The rest of the day was pretty much routine. It's not quite over yet. I still have to give the kids baths and put them to bed...
Well, that's about it for this evening. I'm going to head downstairs and read for a while. I began studying for the MCAT last night. I've concluded that I've chosen a really tough road! Looking though some of the physics questions in the study book has sent my mind reeling. It's been a long time since I have put any serious thought into equations involving gravity, velocity and the like. Usually I consider the laws of physics from a more hands on, practical approach. You know... more like "Damn! What made me think I could walk through a wall... that hurt!" (Usually said as I cut a corner a little too closely on the way to find a wailing child. I don't generally attempt to walk through walls.) OK, that's it for now! I'll write more later. Feel free to leave comments. I wonder occasionally if anyone out there is reading this...
We left the marina and headed out to the bay. Once out there, dad and Mike decided to give the spinnaker a try. I watched them rig the spinnaker since I had never seen them try it before. I took some pictures of it as well. We sailed for a while with it up, but the further we got from shore, the less air we seemed to have. Finally they decided to forget the spinnaker and turn on the motor. If the weather wasn't going to be conducive to sailing... perhaps fishing. There were plenty of croweded boats out in the channel and seagulls circling the air, all intent on catching whatever sportfish were swimming underneath. Dad dropped a line in the water. I went below deck and fished out a Dean Koontz novel (Odd Thomas) that I'd been working on for a while. There was more than enough time for me to finish the last 50 pages of the novel. Not enough time or luck for dad to lure a fish onto his line this time though.
Dad and Mike decided that the wind had died down for the day and attempting to sail back in would be pretty much useless, so we turned away from the channel and began motoring back in. We had almost reached the entrance to the harbor when the wind picked up to almost 10 knots, soooooo we turned around and raised the head sail back up. Dad and Mike let me take the helm which, surprisingly, I did OK with. Usually I'm too nervous around them to want to take that much responsibility with the boat. Of course, usually we are in the middle of an important race and I'm terrified I'll screw something up and ruin our finish. It was really nice to go out with such a small crew and no racing pressure. I actually felt like I contributed instead of just sitting on the rail for extra weight. I missed having my sailing buddies out there with me... but today was really nice and I learned more about sailing than I had in all the races this summer.
After sailing, dad invited me out for lunch. It felt almost like a continuation of the after sail dinners on Wed nights from the summer... a tiny twinge of nostalgia for me, so I called Greg to see how he was doing. We talked for about 10 minutes or so. He seems to be doing well and keeping busy with many projects around the house during his transfer leave.
After that I decided to burn all my pictures on my camera's SD card to a CD. I know I've said I'd add some pictures to here. You'll have to have patience. I'll get around to it sooner or later. I also printed some of the pictures so that I could hold them in my hands and look at them a bit more closely. The rest of the day was pretty much routine. It's not quite over yet. I still have to give the kids baths and put them to bed...
Well, that's about it for this evening. I'm going to head downstairs and read for a while. I began studying for the MCAT last night. I've concluded that I've chosen a really tough road! Looking though some of the physics questions in the study book has sent my mind reeling. It's been a long time since I have put any serious thought into equations involving gravity, velocity and the like. Usually I consider the laws of physics from a more hands on, practical approach. You know... more like "Damn! What made me think I could walk through a wall... that hurt!" (Usually said as I cut a corner a little too closely on the way to find a wailing child. I don't generally attempt to walk through walls.) OK, that's it for now! I'll write more later. Feel free to leave comments. I wonder occasionally if anyone out there is reading this...
posted by VA girl at 4:11 PM
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