Back in the Saddle
2002-08-13

Well I'm back at my old desk, surviving three days of no papers or phones or computers. I must say it was pretty nice. I had a major need to recharge both the physical and emotional batteries and managed to accomplish both things I think.

We left Saturday morning at 7:00 for the two hour slog to Newport. There was absolutely no breeze so we motored along at a pretty brisk pace. My knee was pretty bad and I took a couple of Aleve washed down with water. That was breakfast. Our crew experience level was really low and I made the executive decision that unless it was perfect conditions, we weren't racing. We got to Newport a little after 9:00 and there was still no breeze, so we just kept going. We talked on the radio to a few boats and they were just stiiling there in the harbor floating. Two hours later, still no breeze. They decide to move the start closer to Block. As soon as they move, the breeze fills in. Perfect timing. We were tied up in our slip a little before one, had sandwiches and beers and relaxed for a bit. They didn't get the race restarted until 1:30. Long day for the racers. M.E. and I took a nap.

Steves wife, brother in law and sister in law came over on the high speed ferry. We just hung out in the cockpit and had a few brews. I had the awning up to make a bit of shade and the breeze was perfect. A little after 4:00 boats started coming in. It was ugly. The place where we were tied up had over booked thier slips. Lots of angy people. It was a good thing we got in early.

The party started at 6:00. Open bar, free food, right on the beach, it was beautiful. I stuck with beer. I've been um over medicated at this show before. A few people were then too. Steve's brother in law went for the Dark and Stormys. I'm glad he went home on the ferry. The results were read and we all headed back to the boats. A bunch of people stopped by ours. Actually we had a full boat most of the weekend. They did serious damage to my grapes supply. Around 10:00 we are all startled to hear the sounds of an inflatable boat banging into the hull and the shreiks of hey M.E. We had MUDSLIDES... Friends Mike and Claudette. They were hammered. She almost fell in the water trying to get on the boat. VERY funny.. Watching them try to leave was one of the best shows I've seen in a while. I have no idea how they found their boat (We found out the next day they did get lost.) Eveybody got to bed early and we all slept like rocks. Nice.

Sunday was a lazy day. I made blueberry muffins for breakfast and half the marina stopped by for coffee. We cleaned up the boat some and everybody else took off. M.E. and I took showers and headed up to the OAR for lunch. The OAR sits on the top of a hill and the view of the harbor is spectacular. We sat outside with the now mostly recoverd Mike and Claude. Then we took a cab into town.

The beach was way too crowded and we decided to sit on the deck at the National and watch the ferries come in and people watch. Old Harbor is the big tourest spot and everybody on island goes by at one point or another.

I had a grapes, Mike had a beer, the ladies frozen mudslides. It got ugly. M.E. who doesn't drink much had 3. She was hammered. We decided to walk home (dispite my bum knee) because I figured the air would do her good. She sang at the top of her lungs all the way home. Very funny if you didn't have to walk a foot away. When we got back to the boat, she fell asleep in the hammock for two hours and made a mostly sucessful recovery.

We had ten people over in the main salon for dinner. Lasagna, salad, garlick bread, cheese, meat and cracker plate, hot chocolate chip cookies for desert. Good company... Even if they did kill the rest of my wine. More people came after dinner and we were full. Just the way I like it. Again it was a fairly early night.

We decided not to race back either so as soon as everybody was ready we pulled out. There was very little breeze, and again we motored. The racers started but didn't make much progress for quite a while. Finally the breeze filled in for us and we sailed for a few hours. We were home by three. We showered did laundry, played with puppy and read the paper. We decided to go out to dinner. M.E called Claude and she was justpassing Newport. She wanted to know where we were. M.E. really didn't want to tell her we were all clean and cool and eating great food...but she did. Claude asked what we were having. I think she was hungry. We headed right home after dinner and I hit the help wanted ads. Then we made an early night of it. Except for the knee, I feel 100% better today. I really do.

Later

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