Log Entry - Thursday, Jan 19, 2006

Sailboat | Crew | Log | Route | Track

Crew Arrives The anticipation lingered as I awaited the crew’s arrival around 6:45. I had hoped to meet them at the airport, but I was having groceries delivered around 5:30, so I was unable to make it. You can see me in the photo preparing to take them out to the boat. My friend Peter was kind enough to meet me at the Sourthside Super Market and haul the bags back to the dock. In the morning, I put the final touches on preparing the boat. I mounted a thermometer for monitoring the inside temperature of the fridge and made some pencil holders for my night stand. It is a long skinny box that sits on my berth mattress and serves as my night table. It contains all matter of important things like pills, glasses, pens for jotting down inspirations that subsequently appear in the log, reading light, and other useful doodads. The first photo for today shows how neat and tidy everything is. It will be chaos soon enough, but I wanted it to start out in true ship-shape fashion. Above decks, the anchor was removed and stowed, and jack lines and preventers were made ready. Jack lines are lines, actually long lengths of webbing, that run down both sides of the boat. They are securely fastened at the bow and stern and serve as a continuous connection point when a crew member is tethered to the boat. By hooking on to a jack line, a crew member can walk, or crawl, the entire length of the boat on both starboard and port sides. Preventers are lines used to hold the boom out when sailing downwind. They prevent the boom from being back winded and causing an accidental gibe, one of the most dangerous things that can happen on a sailboat. I am now reading a more modern classic, The Long Way, by Bernard Moitessier. It was written in 1974 by a French sailor who entered the first non-stop, around-the-world alone race. Just before finishing the race, and he looked inside himself and concluded he didn't want to be in a race. He just kept sailing, and went half way around the world again, all without stopping. An astonishing journey. The rain and drizzle dampened my scooter activities today; I stayed pretty close to home. I am writing this at 6:50. The crew should be here any minute. I will write a short addition after they arrive. The fun begins. They arrived, but not without some comic relief. The dinghy for getting back and forth between the dock can minimally hold two people. Mike was the last one to ferry over. With both of us, plus his bag in the stern of the dinghy, the freeboard went under water. We we're sinking. We hadn't even started, and we're sinking. It this funny or just sad. Mike is wet up to his waist; poor guy. Ted and I were laughing so hard we darn near fell in our selves. What a start. Any way, they are all here unloading their gear and getting situated. We're off to the White Horse Tavern in St. George for dinner. At this rate, there may be another whole chapter before we get to sleep. All went well; no more dunkings. With a great sense of loss, I droped off my scooter. Tomorrow, Friday, we go sailing. BTW, I got another weather brief, and Bermuda Weather says we have the best weather window they have seen in two months. Previous | Next