Log, 6/3 - 6/5

Busy weekend, Frogma style -

Friday, 6/3: Was good & dutiful finance analyst from 9 am to 7:30 pm. Was signed up to crew 8:30 - 10:30 sail on schooner. Weather - dreary drizzle. Expectation - fully expected to get call around 7 saying "No sail tonight". Surprise surprise - we had a birthday party group of twenty-plus hardy souls that were game enough to put on our long yellow slickers, let us take 'em for a 2-hour sail down to the Statue of Liberty and back, and imbibe lots of champagne in the rain en route!

I always admire passengers that will do that. Some people are so quick to want to back out even if it's just really overcast. Not these guys though - they were great & I think they had a really good time - and when I see people having a really good time on my boat, I start having a good time too. And since the day job has been rough (plus there was something I found out at the symposium - which I will write about but not tonight 'cause I'm POOPED - that has put me into a rather weird mood & not a good one), sailing around New York Harbor in the dark & drizzle with a bunch of people who were treating it all like a big adventure was really just what I needed.

Saturday - Attempted to go get my Romany blessed at the first ever North River Blessing of the Fleet & Opening Day. Failed, though. We carry on unblessed. Oh well, we've done pretty well without being blessed for the last few years. See - what happened was that the event was advertised as lasting from 1 to 5. Supposedly any boat that went by looking to get blessed during those hours was going to get blessed. However - the press was advertised as being there from 2 to 3. I'm enough of a non-publicity-hound that I decided that I would go well after that - I launched at 3:15 & got down there, oh, 3:45 or so I think it was. Unfortunately once the press left, so did all the ministers & rabbis & gurus. Thhhbbbt. Guess it was just a photo op to them. The organizer, John Doswell, and Noreen from the Hudson River Park stuck around - at least THEY were good sports about it. They thought there might still be at least one holy-type person around so I did hang around, did some rolls for the folks on the pier, listened to the band, talked up the increasing cleanliness of the river, all good Frogma & pretty much fun, too - as I was doing that, a whole PACK of people from the Downtown Boathouse turned up & when nobody came over even for that gang, that pretty much determined that there were no formal blessings to be had that day. But it was a beautiful day, and I just pottered around until 7:00 or so - Pua's comment the other day about how pix would be nice gave me kind of a fun idea & so Saturday was all about Phase 1 of doing that - I'll be picking up a cd-rom from the developer on Tuesday & we'll see if I have any material worth playing with - we shall see. But boy did I get a nice relaxing nosing around here - nosing around there day. Plus since I was solo & not really in a hurry it was a good chance to go Greenland for a couple of hours. Finished with a little more skills practice at the barge (lots of rolling) and all the sudden it was 7:00 already! The evening plan was that I was going to have a celebratory drink with some friends who are celebrating some wonderful things that have happened in their life this year (an incipient baby, a PhD attained, and a university job all lined up - couldn't happen to a nicer couple, either!), and I'd really meant for there to be a shower somewhere in the time between the blessing/photography paddle and the drinks, but that wasn't going to happen. Fortunately they are paddlers too & don't mind that I'm-fresh-off-the-Hudson-and-rinsed-myself-down-with-a-garden-hose-in-lieu-of-going-home-for-a-shower look...plus my trip to a Chelsea grocery store right after this unexpectedly long day on the water resulted in my turning up at their place with fresh mozarella, prosciutto, ripe tomatoes, fresh basil and little mini-toast thingies to serve it all on - really, would you turn away someone carrying a bribe like that? A trip to D'agostino's when you've just been on the water for 3 hours is dangerous (but my contribution to the evening did turn out YUMMY).

Today - another beautiful day - worked on the schooner, we had a 1:00, a 3:30, and a 6:00 - I got relieved for the 8:30. We had some good sails - lots of people getting barefoot, stripping down to bikini tops & sprawling out on the cabin tops in the sun, and just generally letting all their stress just go drifting off. Crew has to keep our shirts on of course but a sleeveless polo is one of the uniform options, and I wore that with shorts, so my poor winter-white arms & legs did at least get to see the light of day today (or whatever light can make it through SPF 48 - this is just the first long sunny day of a summer of long sunny days, I use the maximum). It was such a lovely day that I was tempted to just go out for a ride on the 8:30 sail - but the idea of getting the relief crew for me in the first place was so that I could be home & in bed by 11:00 or so - lord only knows what this work week is going to be like & it would behoove me to arrange to face the misery with 8 hours of sleep. Lots of other boats out today too - schooners, motorboats, Whitehall dories, kayaks...which reminds me I wish I had some way to get a note to that lone shirtless guy in the blue plastic kayak that was dodging between our schooner and the large motor yacht over on the Jersey side - WEAR YOUR PFD, YOU DOPE! You didn't look hot paddling around out there bare-chested...what you looked like was a candidate for the Darwin award. Sheese.

Sorry, couldn't help a little rant there. That's just really dumb.

Good day on the water though - noon to 8, w/6 hours of sailing...my callouses are coming back & I'm ready for a good sound sleep!

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that Saturday's picture trip has good results 'cause that really will be fun if they come out!