Friday, November 4, 2011

Two Weeks in the Hole

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, but an interesting one.

I’ve been asked to play guitar in a band that’ll be doing a bunch of shows in the winter and spring. This has kept me busy improving my guitar skills. I hadn’t realized how rusty I’ve become, but it’s all coming back quickly…

Sailing is getting costly. Along with my monthly club fees (I knew this would go all year, it just sucks to pay and not utilize the club for the winter), I had to take a couple more prerequisite courses before my live-aboard one in February. I attained my VHF Marine Radio license (ROC-M), and just signed up for 2 weekends of Coastal Navigation. When I was budgeting for the February Caribbean course, I hadn’t taken into account having to take (and pay for) these other classes. They’ll be handy, and are fun and interesting, but still – more money NOT paying down debts.

Speaking of the sailing club, I missed the awards dinner but won 2 of the 5 awards: I was deemed “Rookie of the Year,” and also won for “Best Timing.” This was due to my boat getting slammed by a really bad squall (I believe the remnants of the tornado that hit Goderitch that day) while down below peeing into a water bottle. Specifically, realizing that I was going to overfill the first bottle and frantically looking for a second one. Looking out the companionway hatch and seeing the black sky, at the same time hearing the crew shouting, pinched that off quickly. Nobody was hurt, and it was an exciting fight to keep the sailboat under control. And apparently nobody else had such unfortunate timing this season. I suppose other contenders might have been the person who wasn’t paying attention while her boat was docking, and stepped off 2’ before reaching the slip. SPLASH.

I’m also ½-way through reading The Pirates of Somalia, by Jay Badahur. Fascinating, it seems to be an honest account of what is happening over there along with it’s causes. Jay is a Canadian journalism student that (without telling his family) made his way to Somalia and lived with pirates and supporters for a few months. While showing both sides of the equation, I still think these pirates should be dealt with in the traditional manner. But that’s my opinion. Anyone looking for a good read to pass the cold winter should pick this up.