Cold as ice
2002-10-23

It was a long slow slog in this morning. People here in New England seem to forget how to drive when it rains. Not a good thing if you have a long commute. In snow it is even worse, they get total brain freeze. I think everybody has images of the great blizzard of 78 in their heads and it just panics them. We Rhode Islanders also have the habit of buying out all the bread and milk within a couple of hundred mile radius at merest mention of snow. I never said we were normal.

Inclement weather is a major thing I am dreading about winter. trying to get to and from this god awful place in the snow is definately going to be a challenge. Last year, we really didn't have any snow to speak of. I figure we are due, in a big way. I hope I'm wrong.

Besides the rain this morning, there was also fog. Unfortunately it was on the inside of my head. I hope it clears up soon. I'll settle for partly cloudy.

Yesturday was a beautiful day day to leave early. The sun was out, there was a little breeze and it was relatively warm for this time of year. I got to the club right after noon and went looking for the manager. Jen our cute, but terminally thin office manager said he was on the fuel dock and so he was.

We started discussing options. It was a short conversation, there weren't any. With our size 40 feet, and our draft 7.2 feet, there just wasn't anything open and it looked like that wasn't going to change for several weeks. He said he talked to the assistant manager and they both agreed that I should tie up on the end of C dock.

Well I waffled on this quite a bit. I hate clogging up the end slips when the launch isn't running on a regular basis. They are usually the only option when you get in and there is nobody around to pick you up. Besides the usual scourge of dock poachers had already taken the ends of D and F and most of E.

Bruce reiterated that it was cool. He said that if anybody had problems they could tie up at the fuel or pump out docks and he'd tow them out in the morning. So I said OK and took the north end of C. Our new home away from home for the next few weeks.

So I tied up the boat and went next door for lunch, a brew and a heavy dose of local politics. I survived all three relatively unscathed.

It was too nice to do any real work so I scrubbed the boat did a few small projects and called M.E. and Neil to go sailing.... and we did. It was wonderful, northeast about 8 knots. The water was as flat as glass. There were a few sailboats coasting along and some powerboats drifting in the schools of jumping bluefish. It was sweet.

The sunset turned the few clouds colors so bright that it looked like the sky was on fire. Tres cool. Until the sun went all the way down. Then it changed to tres cold. Brrr. The temp must have dropped 15 degrees in as many minutes. We rolled up the jib and motored in at top speed.

The three of us hit the club to warm up. Mike the new member we sponsored was already there. His name had been put up in the computer and he now had a bar tab and was determined to use it. UGH... It may have been a mistake to sponsor him and Claudette. M.E. now is the one who wants to stay while I'm the one thinking about bed time. Rub eyes, YAWN, repeat, is becoming my routine lately. Tonight I'm staying home. Honest... I'm really positive about it.... I think.

Later

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