MySpace

After some urging by my friends at Press53, I've plunged into MySpace - much like stepping into the Atlantic Ocean, if I just concentrate on the immediate area it's not so intimidating.

Five stitches

It was meant to be a great day on the water for my parents, a December outing to take advantage of fair weather.
We pulled High Cotton to Southport, planning a sail to Bald Head Island and lunch there.
Remember the ditty about the "three-hour cruise?"
The disaster happened before we got into the water, however. In the course of rigging the boat, I lost concentration for a second and stepped back.
Right into the open hatch.
It wasn't a long fall, but an awkward one. I slammed my head into something and came down hard on my back on the aluminum boom still inhabiting the cabin floor.
There's something particularly terrifying about taking your hand away from the pain at the back of your head to see it covered with blood. That and excruciating pain in my hip had me headed to Dosher Memorial Hospital as soon as I could hobble down the ladder.
The folks at Dosher - a small, community-owned hospital - were great, and had me through X-ray and CAT scans and stitched up in a short while. They even let me sleep on the gurney when the pain shot kicked in.
Nothing permanently damaged, except my pride. I've been a bit foggy the past week, and have learned exactly what muscles allow for walking, sitting, standing and bending.
I guess I'm a slow learner. It took a couple of hard whacks from the boom to remind me to keep my head down. Now I'll remember to watch my feet.
And we did make it to Bald Head - that next day. I wasn't much use in sailing but the winds were light and we motor-sailed much of the way.

Christmas carol

Ok, so it's four ships - if you look closely - but you have to love the Beneteau showing her skirts.
We took this shot at Smith Mountain Lake, during a PHRF Regatta.

Wintering

This past week has been a blur of activity, from writing the final lectures for classes to pulling the boat for its inaugural journey to saltwater.
Classes get smaller this time of year - the students are often distracted but some seniors are very well dressed as they move through mock interviews and real ones in preparation for December graduation. On Thursday I concluded my first Humanities 200 course with a lecture that brought together Shakespeare, Luther, Hamlet and the Reformation. Teaching Humanities has been a great joy but involved pressure on me as well as the students as I revisited texts I hadn't seen since my own undergrad years, as well as some new ones. Next semester, Humanities 201 will move from 1600-2000, what seems to be a more manageable span than the beginning of time to 1600!
On Saturday, we had a great day to pull the boat, with temperatures in the 50s and a nice bit of breeze in the morning that dissolved in the early afternoon. We took a final sail, preceded by Papillon and three or four other "big boats," and accompanied by wintering loons that popped up left and right, reconnoitered and dived again. The photo is a teaser to a very nice loon website that will give you a lot more information about these handsome divers.
(Although some bird books say they do not call in winter, we heard them many times this fall as they worked through the coves.)
This was our first time dropping the mast and we were pretty nervous, but it all went well and we had High Cotton wrapped up and headed home in under three hours. She's in the back yard for a few days, then we plan to slide her into the sea at Southport and do some sailing in that area, before bringing her home for some cosmetic work. Her wintering grounds are "on the hard" but I imagine we'll be sailing again long before winter is officially over.