Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Another Boat Story

We went out for a sail on Monday afternoon/evening. The house was hot (airconditioning was not necessary until suddenly it was...we're getting by just fine for the next few days though) and had been hot all day and I was still recovering from Saturday night and not in the mood to go out on the boat AT ALL, but the captain of my heart convinced me. And once we were out on the water, ahhhhhh, the water, the breeze, the feel of the boat, all were wonderful. We saw a ray swimming along on our way out to the Bay and on the way back (hours later) we saw a cormorant dive for and catch a fish. Makes me very happy to see these animals free and thriving. (At least I think they are thriving...)

The winds were great--we got up to about 6.5 knots! Quite a lot of heeling (maybe even a bit too much for a still-nervous beginning like me) along with the speed of course. I took the tiller for a good long while, when we were sailing back home. It is indeed fun and challenging to hold the boat on course when she's under the influence of the wind and the current. :) And I am usually not so good...but I'm learning and getting better little by little.

So, getting off the boat something terrible (but I know you want to hear about it so you can laugh at us) happened. We had to take the chemical toilet off the boat to empty the tank. Now, there was only pee and the deodorizer in the tank, no more nasty stuff, but still. Ugh. I handed it (heavy thing) up out of the cabin, to Captain Obvious, who was standing in the cockpit. Somehow or another it escaped him and splattered all over the inside of the cabin (mostly just the sink, counter, companion way, and floor) and, yep, you guessed it, all over ME! Fortunately, I was the only person in the cabin and the cushions were in the garage (since they need to have new covers made) so barely anything made of fabric was affected. Much rinsing and scrubbing later, we finally got on the dinghy and paddled to shore, me stinking like a chemical toilet. Shudder.

This evening the three of us walked down to the water and saw lots of little shrimp and some crabs swimming around in the evening light. Cool, huh?

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