I went sailing this weekend! Here is a photo:
( photo! )
My uncle is working on getting his charter captain's license, which is a bit of a pain in the ass. You have to have 360 days on the water, 90 in the last 3 years (a day = at least 4 hours on the water. 8 hours counts as 1 day, 3 hrs 30 min does not count). That's not too hard to get if you work, say, on a lobster boat (he doesn't), or if you live in like, Florida (he doesn't), but up here the season starts in June and ends in September and 30 days is basically every weekend, some evenings, and a two week boat vacation exploring Maine. It's hard. Last year, due to the Alaska trip & Grandpa's pneumonia and work that needed to be done on the boat, he wound up with only 11.
So anyway this year I have taken it as my job to make sure he gets at least 30 days this year. We went out once, on a nice Sunday or something, and tooled around for 4 hours, then a few days later my boyfriend & brother joined us for an amped up "Sunset Sail" where we left the dock at about 730 and got back in at midnight.
Saturday we finished commissioning her, then sailed down into Boston and docked over on one of the islands. (It will never cease to tickle me that a 45 minute drive translates into a 4 hour sail). We spent a lot of time under the Logan main approach trying to identify planes by markings & make/model. We sailed back yesterday and spent Father's Day evening with my parents, who threw a teeny party and served us lobster and sangria, and then I went home and did laundry until 2 am.
I am so sore and bruised today :)
( photo! )
My uncle is working on getting his charter captain's license, which is a bit of a pain in the ass. You have to have 360 days on the water, 90 in the last 3 years (a day = at least 4 hours on the water. 8 hours counts as 1 day, 3 hrs 30 min does not count). That's not too hard to get if you work, say, on a lobster boat (he doesn't), or if you live in like, Florida (he doesn't), but up here the season starts in June and ends in September and 30 days is basically every weekend, some evenings, and a two week boat vacation exploring Maine. It's hard. Last year, due to the Alaska trip & Grandpa's pneumonia and work that needed to be done on the boat, he wound up with only 11.
So anyway this year I have taken it as my job to make sure he gets at least 30 days this year. We went out once, on a nice Sunday or something, and tooled around for 4 hours, then a few days later my boyfriend & brother joined us for an amped up "Sunset Sail" where we left the dock at about 730 and got back in at midnight.
Saturday we finished commissioning her, then sailed down into Boston and docked over on one of the islands. (It will never cease to tickle me that a 45 minute drive translates into a 4 hour sail). We spent a lot of time under the Logan main approach trying to identify planes by markings & make/model. We sailed back yesterday and spent Father's Day evening with my parents, who threw a teeny party and served us lobster and sangria, and then I went home and did laundry until 2 am.
I am so sore and bruised today :)