the danish outpost
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i want to come back as a porpoise

04.08.2002

feeling kinda how a girl feels

birthday countdown: 15 days.

had the great pleasure of going sailing again with the Cap'n today. things fell into place nicely, i felt organized and helpful, and the weather was gorgeous.

made a run to the store last night to pick up supplies for lunch and breakfast. i figured the least i could do would be to feed everyone breakfast, so i picked up some sour cream coffee cake muffins and a small jar of blackberry jam. lunch was easy - cold cuts and serious bread (sourdough, from a local bakery). bottle or two of water, some power drinks, and then i started looking for snacks.

tactical error on my part was going shopping whilst hungry. i had filled the basket with nachos, cookies, various other forms of carbos before realizing that these were bad snacks for a day where you need as much hydration as possible. out went the nachos, in went the grapes. add some dried fruit (mango, papaya, pineapple) for a little sugar boost, some grape tomatoes to go with lunch, and a package of peach-apricot Newtons because you always need treats, and things looked better.

got organized and on the road before 9, complete with full tank of gas and road map folded open on the seat beside me. the drive down was nice, having figured out approximately where i needed to go and discovered a lovely, mellow morning music show, Over Easy. sun on my skin, window rolled down and breeze in my face, great music, Red Bull and smokes, and making good time to the destination point... ahhhh.

i was still a few minutes late, which turned out not to be an issue as most of the boatyards were tending to a disabled boat. i covered up with sunscreen while we waited, then we snagged a block of ice and took the launch out.

turns out we were out the same day as the BB Regatta. made for great boat watching. flocks of smaller boats, (24'? 28'?) with sailing jibs, clustered here and there, waiting for the flag to line up for the start, tons of other boats out, maybe watching, maybe just doing boaty things - plenty to watch.

also plenty to do, and i got it. i remembered most of the routine from last week, and learned some new things. rigged sails, put the new gloves to use on the stays and lines, hauled sheets, getting a little better each time, and felt like more than dead weight this time. made myself useful in the cabin, making up breakfast bowls for the boys, and poking around cabinets to figure out things in general.

i'm learning to feel comfortable scrambling 'round the deck, even when there's a bit of a pitch. i don't worry so much about falling off, even when the rail is dipping into the water. at one point, we were heeled over pretty well, and i found myself sitting crosslegged on the bench - on what would have been the side had we been upright. and it felt natural.

and we got to go swimming off the boat! we pulled into the harbour by the Elizabeth Islands and mucked around with the anchors for a while; for some reason, it was hard to set in. Cap'n thought we might need to just head back, to which i said 'head out? nuh-uh! i'm gonna get my five minutes in the water!'. it was breezy but hot, and there's nothing quite so tantalizing as being in the middle of all that cool water and not being able to get in it, lest you be left in the middle of the bay.

we ended up with about half an hour to splash around. i was mildly spooked when i first went off the ladder; short of the diving end of a pool, i've never swum in water where i couldn't touch bottom. i tried floating on my back to get used to it, and found that i was holding my breath. that, and the fact that home base might not be *quite* where you left it when you head back made me a bit tense. took a bit to relax, but finally got there. paddled around, dove off the boat a few times, watched puppies chasing footballs, watched launches motoring in and out, giggled at the puppies in life vests, and paddled around some more. what a blissful break.

when i was changing up for the sail back, i realized that for some reason, only the tops of my legs had gotten any color. ever have a Dairy Queen soft serve dip? the ones with the hard shell? i swear, i looked like a DQ cherry dip. once again, the queen of stupid tans. *bows* thank you. thankyouverymuch.

the fog rolled in on the way back, dense enough that we couldn't see shore. i got a few lessons on how to navigate, and kept picturing the car ad where the kayaker uses the remote to flash the headlights to find shore. wasn't all that bad, really, just made for a bit of an adventure. well, that, and we lost the winch again, so we were working with just the jib. didn't seem to cut the return time much. fastened down things on the boat, dinner, frozen smoothies, a bit of an adventure as i tried to learn the reverse drive and nearly ended up in New Bedford, and home again.

boy, oh boy am i gonna sleep well tonight. :)

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