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.