I had intended to edit and curate and massage and wordsmith the last two week's worth of blog entries. In fact, I spent a lot of yesterday doing just that. However, after doing all that work, I looked at them and thought to myself, "maybe it's better to put out what I wrote in its raw form and let see people see what I thought and said." I admit, though, that I couldn't resist (after posting it) going back through to fix grammatical and spelling errors.
There were times over the last weeks that I was annoyed at my shipmates, and that annoyance does come through in what I wrote. However, what is not there are the good things about them. We had wonderful meals with the cleaning duties ungrudgingly shared (though I admit that there some people did more clean up than others [thank you Iris!]). Also, I tend to be a quiet, introverted sort of person, especially when sailing. All of them worked hard to include and invite me into things. I hope they see this post and realize that I'm aware of, and thankful for it.
I remember times when one person or another stepped up to cover for another person who was, perhaps, not as strong in that area, only to be helped in return by someone else. Round and round went the responsibilities. All of us were different, bringing different things to the boat and voyage, but we worked together as a crew.
That's the most important thing about being a sailing crew. We work as a team. Noone can be everything. There will always be someone better than you at something and it's wonderful when, somehow, we all mesh together and pool our strengths to form a community working towards a common goal. There's probably something very profound to be said about that as applied to the larger body of people out there - communities, states/provinces, countries, and the world, but I'll save that for some other time, some other place rather than starting to get political here.
So today was paging through the pictures I took and thinking about the words I wrote. I also sent off my registration fee (100 British Pounds) to the Clipper race. Each thing brings that race a little more real, a little more close to reality. Now that I've sent in the registration fee, the next step is scheduling an interview. Yes, they interview you. I have no idea what to expect. Is it going to be like a job interview? Perhaps it's more of a psychological interview (a small boat on a big ocean is likely no place for someone that's too far crazy!). The person who is the gatekeeper for that won't be back in the office until tomorrow at the earliest, so I'm not expecting to hear from them for a few days.
I may be teaching a part of a class next week. The instructor scheduled for it might have a conflict and asked if I can step in if needed. Let's see. Go sailing? Get paid for it? Let me think about that a moment... It has the added bonus that one of the students was on the Vancouver Island circumnavigation trip as well, so it will be a reuniting with them.
For the Circumnavigation I had a sea bag - a large duffel bag that had all my stuff in it. For teaching, I'll be limiting myself to, at most, a knapsack. Have to alter your kit to match the mission, right? So what to pack?
- PFD & safety tether
- Instructor and Canada permits/paperwork
- Sweater, hat, and sailing gloves
- Foul weather gear (maybe - depends on weather forecast) (doubles as a wind breaker)
- Sunglasses (depends on weather forecast)
- Water speed indicator to calibrate the boat speed indicator.
- Navigation equipment including GPS and iPad
- Toothbrush and toochpaste, comb or brush
- Change of underwear and socks
- Teddy bear!
- Knife
- Chargers for the various electronics
and that's about it. In a pinch I'll leave behind the change of underwear and socks, water speed indicator, some of the navigation equipment (the boat has navigation equipment on it, but I admit to liking to have my own with me) and change out the sweater and wind breaker for a waterproof, warm coat.
If I'm not teaching next week then my next (scheduled) sail will be a 3 day crew familiarization with the Quijote in June. After that I have nothing schedule until August or September, when I travel down the west coast of North America with the Quijote on a run from Seattle to San Diego and then San Diego to La Paz, Mexico. I am guessing that we might do a few overnight traverses, but I think that it will be mostly (relatively - by my new definition) easy days of traveling.
One thing that I want to get for that trip is something called in InReach from Garmin. It's basically a satellite location and communication device. I'll be able to send text messages through it to Anne, as well as get weather reports and allow her to track my (well, its) movements down the coast. The basic unit will cost about $400.00 and then there's the monthly satellite subscription. Fortunately, you can go month-to-month with them, so I'll activate it for the trip and then deactivate it when the trip is over, then activate it again if I'm doing another trip, etc.
Ok, time to go put some pictures up from the trip! I'll put them in, somewhere, interspersed with the blog entries from the last week so you'll have to go back and read them again to see the pictures. Ok, yes, I'm mean. I'll edit this blog entry and let you know when I'm done.
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