I'm not sure if I'll get a chance to do another blog entry today. In fact, not sure when I'll be able to post another blog entry since I'll be on a sailboat for the next 2 weeks. I will be writing daily and I'll post them when I get a chance, but it might be 2 weeks from now.
Today's sort of a special day. It's the anniversary of my entering Canada. It's mind boggling that it was over a decade now that I moved from my birth country. Ok, sure, the change from the U.S. to Canada isn't really much of a culture shock, but strangely enough it was still difficult. Now both the U.S. and Canada are my "home" country. I may live in Canada and think of myself as Canadian, but I am also and forever U.S. as well.
Ok, today is completely unpacking my sea bag and repacking it for the last time. I'll be bringing more in the car than I will take with me on the boat, but I figure better to have it there at the boat and decide to leave something in the car than to be at the boat wishing I had brought something.
Outside it's clear skies and bright - an auspicious start to the trip. Still, I'll be packing cold gear for the night watches on the boat. It's projected to get down around 2 or 3 degrees (that's just above freezing for the people who don't do metric) during part of the trip. So that means bringing both warm and cold weather clothing plus my rain gear plus my usual sailing gear plus my sextant plus... etc. Bleah!
Time to get packing - I'll write more if I can, later.
And I won't forget the bear and I will take more pictures this time!
There are 7 other crew on this trip. It’s a bit weird being a student when I normally am the instructor. I have to bite back from teaching and let the actual teacher do his job. When he’s here, it’s easy as I know him well. However, he’s not having dinner with us nor staying aboard tonight. The other students know I teach here, so they start asking me questions.
And, of course, I love teaching, so my first instinct is to help. Honestly, though, how different is it for me to show people, teach people, within what I know, compared to a bunch of sailors (who are all qualified sailors) giving each other the benefit of each others’ experience?
On the other hand, I don’t want anyone to have even the slightest confusion about who is in charge, nor that I’m setting myself up as an authority. A tightrope to walk, for sure, and likely one that I will fall off at some point, darn it.
Most of the other students decided to go out for dinner. However, several us were still aboard. We made the lasagna in the oven, along with garlic bread. Boat ovens are not the most efficient things, so cooking dinner took quite a while. By the time it was done, the others had returned and decided that the garlic bread looked good. And then some decided to have lasagna too, so it ended up being a good social “family” dinner.
I’m going to be sleeping in the salon, darn it. One of the cabins would have been nice for once, since when teaching on charters I sleep in the salon. Oh well, it’s a decent salon, though sleeping there with the instructor (we have separate sleeping bags, get your mind out of the gutter) will be tight.
Not really much to report more than that as it was an “uneventful” day.
Add new comment