Monday, July 16, 2007

Catching Up

I can't believe that the time has gone by so quickly. I took Friday and Monday off from my real job to work on Serenity (whose name may be changed to Aurora). On Friday I launched Serenity at a boat landing which was an adventure in and of itself. Then we motored over to the marina where she will stay. The launching went relatively well considering that the mast had fallen earlier in the day when I tried to take it down. However, at the landing it went okay and I was able to get the mast in place with some help from a friend.

Getting to the marina was smooth and docking went well. After a long day with Serenity, I finally was able to go home and get some sleep.

On Saturday, I volunteered on the state's tall ship at a nearby maritime festival. It was a good time and the people who were visiting seemed to like the ship. There was a great band that I was looking forward to hearing but a thunderstorm put an end to that before it got started. Because of all the rain, I stopped to check on Serenity and found that the bilges needed emptying so I spent a couple of hours pumping them and mopping up some rain water. The cockpit was filled with water so I used that to flush out the engine. Once again, it was a late night due to Serenity.

Let's see--now I'm at Sunday which actually turned out to be relaxing and chilled out. I took the boat out and docked at a restaurant on a creek, got some dinner to go, and then anchored at a place called Crab Bank. It is a rookery for several species of birds who filled the air with their raucous cries and smelly guano. A terrific wind came up around 2 AM and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. The anchor was dug in so the boat stayed put. I slept on board but awoke several times to check on things.

Later today, I sanded and put some varnish on the teak while a friend spliced some lines. It was hot at the marina but we got a lot accomplished in a short amount of time.

After that I went to my Al-Anon meeting where the topic was about grieving over a loss. I've grieved over the loss of feelings in my marriage. I've grieved the loss of people that I love. I've grieved my own lost emotions that were wasted for many years because I didn't know how to have fun or enjoy life. Now I see that the pendulum is swinging towards a place where I'm having fun, enjoying adventures, and making new friends. I miss each of you and will be checking up on what you've been up to tomorrow.

For now, I'm going to get some rest. I've had enough Serenity for a few days.

8 comments:

  1. I had a feeling you were busy on the boat! It alll sounds like its going really well. there must be a load of other sailing folk that it brings you into contact with too. cool.

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  2. Thanks. I enjoyed the update.

    Shirley McClaine played a character named Aurora in Terms of Endearment.

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  3. You have been busy. Glad to see you posted.

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  4. I love that you named your boat "Serenity"! It will be a constant reminder of where you want to be! "aurora" is a cool name too...

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  5. Hey i hope work is good today! though I bet your mind is pondering some aspect of the new boat instead of the normal work stuff..

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  6. hmmmppphhh! All that work to put a guest book on, and nobody to sign it! *sigh*

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  7. Hope you are well today and enjoying your day.
    Peace,
    Scout

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  8. I appreciate your posts on grief. And I'm so glad you indexed them. ...Thank you.

    As an aside from the topic of grief. Aurora - as a word and as a name for both serenity and your boat Serenity - caught my attention in this post. Some months ago I considered addressing my guardian angel(s) as Aurora. Researching the word, I learned that aurora implies dawn and that borealis and australis imply north wind and south wind - all of which are potently significant to me. After considering combinations of the words aurora and boreal and borealis and austral and australis, I abandoned my intention altogether. It was so fun to explore, but ultimately I couldn't decide and I didn't want to confine my angel(s) to names :) . Some combination of those words - especially those that refer to wind - are great options for sailboat names :) !

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