Do you ever say things and immediately wish you could take them back? Wondering, where did that come from? What could have possessed me to possibly say something like that? The things in your heart are evidenced by what you say and what you do. Sometimes things come out of my mouth and I wonder at the ugliness that must be inside of me. Obviously, dwelling on these things, or obsessing over them does no good. Regret does no one well. However, I think careful consideration of motivation, intent, desires, and weaknesses can benefit us. It is good to wrestle with your own flaws.
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| Vivi kitten with her new feather toy. |
The trick is learning to do that without swirling into the depths of self deprecating emotion. People who spend all of their time beating themselves up drive me out of my mind crazy. I have very little tolerance for it. They seem to get stuck in it and I just want to shake them and tell them to snap out of it. It just doesn't make any sense to me. So maybe, while they work on not getting stuck in the mire of their emotions, I should work on developing love and patience towards those things to which I do not easily relate.
On a lighter note, this weekend was a lot of fun! We went sailing even though the weather was a bit intimidating. It was maybe 60 degrees outside with breeze and very little sunshine. My attire wasn't quite appropriate either. I ended up ditching my boots and jacket to sail barefoot in a short sleeved cardigan.
The last time I took someone new to sailing out on a day with if-y weather was a bit of a debacle. My friends, Steph and Sarah wanted to get out on the water. When we got to the waterfront, I realized that the wind was a bit heavy to take two people out, so Sarah stayed behind and Steph came out with me. We reviewed the basic concepts, including how to tack and what to do if we for some reason capsized. This was early April, so the water was very, very cold. I emphasized to her, the most important thing to remember if we start to capsize is to get clear of all of the lines and whatever you do, don't hang onto the boat.
So we get out there and we are flying - there was some serious wind. It was a blast. I realized we had gotten pretty far from shore, so I told her we were going to tack, ran her through what needed to happen and then we went to tack. The thing I didn't take into account was that she had never really spent any significant amount of time on boats before. Growing up where I did, everyone knew boats. Well, my arrogance of assuming that basic boat knowledge is intuitive, definitely bit me in the butt.
We start tacking and she held onto the jib sheet (the line that controls the smaller sail) for too long. This backwinded us, meaning, she basically held the sail on the wrong side of the boat and the power of the wind blew us straight over. We ended up in the water and let me tell you it was icy! Completely took my breath away!
I immediately made sure she was okay, righted the boat, boosted her into it, hauled myself back in and we were underway again before the chase boat made it out to check on us. So we're sailing along completely drenched, freezing and just wanting to get back to shore. I could tell she was a bit shaken up, so I wanted to make it back as seamlessly as possible.
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| Coast Guard Sail Boat in the Harbor |
Unfortunately, based on our course, we had to tack one last time to prevent running aground. I told her to not even worry about her jib sheet this time, just cross over to the other side of the boat. I tacked the boat and this time she stepped on the line, backwinded the jib again and, I guess in fear of landing in the water for a second time, held onto the boat for dear life.
We ended up turtling (the boat was completely upside down rather than just on its side). This time, I moved even more quickly than before. I wasn't heavy enough to get the boat righted on my own though, so I pulled her up with me (think of all of the resistance created by the sails being completely under water). We righted the boat. I got her back aboard, and hauled myself in.
We get going again, straight shot for shore, and I am feeling pretty good about myself for handling it as well as I could have....and then I look down and realize...the sweat pants I was originally wearing, were no longer on my body...
That's right.
You read it correctly.
No pants.
It was April.
No bathing suit bottom.
Let's just say, thank God I hadn't chosen to wear any skimpy undergarments that day or worse, gone COMMANDO. Not that I ever do either of those things...
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| Evening walk around the Harbor |
OH! And, not only were the pants at the bottom of the St. Mary's river. I was the only one who knew how to de-rig the boat. So, yes, I got to shore, de-rigged the boat in my undies and then proceeded to walk across campus pants-less. The guy working at the boat house that day definitely had a more exciting day than he had originally planned. And poor Steph! I think it took her a while to get back out on the river again!
You would think after all of that, I would refuse take a new sailor out in chilly weather or solid breeze.
No - I apparently do not learn from prior mishaps. Chris is a boater though, and convinced me he could sail. He somehow persuaded me to take out an FJ, and it wasn't until we got out on the water that he informed me he had never really sailed before.
Delightful!
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| And I think to myself, what a wonderful world. |
It ended up actually working out beautifully though. The sun came out and I was warm enough. We didn't get wet at all and we got some solid boat speed. He did a great job! Didn't even mind me bossing him around the whole time. It was really great to get back on the water again, especially in a dinghy. You're so much closer to the water and have so much more direct control over things. We even got to hike out a bit. St. Mary's spoiled me with the water and the boats.
