Two Down, Five To Go
What an amazing week. I was able to go sailing on Tuesday and Wednesday! If I can fill the remaining five days with sailing, photos, and video I might just have the whole world in my hand.
Tuesday was a very sleepy day aboard Aquila, but a pleasant one nonetheless. Wednesday I went out for the first time with my new friend Peter aboard his 34’ Colombia Satsuko. We had a wonderful slow-motion day of sailing in extremely light wind. However, Peter’s youthful spirit and eagerness to teach made the day the most informative I’ve had yet. I was given a thorough tour of Satsuko and her rigging, Peter taught me how to dock her, and as we bobbed along with the current in the channel that runs around Sauvie’s Island I looked up to take in the sun and watched the cottonwood blow across the mainsail like a lite summer snow.
We spent the rest of the afternoon talking about our sailing dreams. Peter wants to sail from PDX to San Francisco for the America’s Cup in 2013. Myself…I want to sail around the world. Then I’d like to do it single handed and with a little luck I’d like to get into the Volvo Ocean Race as an MCM (Media Crew Member). For the time being though, we were both content with floating in the channel, eating raspberries from the berry fields on Sauvie’s Island, and waiting for a puff of wind to fill our sails and take us home.
"Ataraxia means equilibrium: the art of maintaining an even keel, so that you neither exult when things go well nor plunge into despair when they go awry. To attain it is to have control over your emotions, so that you are not battered and dragged about by them like a bone fought over by a pack of dogs." As I learn to sail, I hope that I may also learn to live.
