As I write this on one of the last days
of January I'm down in the newly re-upholstered saloon of my
schooner, sitting at the dinette table with the oil lamp swinging
rhythmically overhead. The weather's fantastic! It's sixty-eight
degrees with blinding rain and a southwest breeze of thirty knots
gusting to forty. The little vessel is pitching and rolling in her
dock slip with such spirit that it's easy to imagine myself at sea in
any number of places she's taken me. Springsteen on the stereo.
Life is good.
What a January it's been! Yesterday
afternoon it was even warmer than this without all the wind and rain.
As soon as my son Emmet got out of school I took him and three
friends out for a sail. We went out to the end of Nine-foot Shoal
Channel. As we beat back against the increasing breeze the sun began
to set and we broke out our fleeces. The boy took the helm and I
went below to brew a pot of tea. Back at the dock, as we were
securing the boat and putting on the sail covers, we were even
greeted by a few mosquitoes, kindly reminding us that summer is not
really so far away.
Many thanks to Lou Ann Homan for the
photos of Emmet.
Can it really be January 27th?
Rigging the "fisherman."
Chilly as the sun set.
