Jib Notes

Life seems to be coming at me pretty fast things days. One second I was signing up with a traveling company in Baltimore, and the next thing I know I am flying home to Oregon to go to my grandmother's funeral and my good friend, Jake's wedding. I suddenly find myself one year older with one grandparent left, sick, still no job, and a pile of things in the corner of my mind that I thought I would achieve during this trip.

I once had imagined sailing to be an inspiring event filled with free time to explore myself. I envisioned poetry written, new perspectives revealed, and much knowledge gained. I suppose some of things have occurred if not the way I imagined. I have acquired some new skills. I can use power tools, buy plumbing parts, and sail reasonably well. I haven't written any amazing poetry and my french still sucks. Regardless of all this, one thing major thing has happened. A 37 foot sailboat with a computer geek and a spoiled cat has become home and it was good to be home.

It took a hell of lot to reach that home. I spent all day on subways and buses to reach the small dock where Jeremy picked me up in the dinghy. Once back aboard Quixote showed me how much he had missed me by being extra psychotic and Jeremy acted like a drunk seeing alcohol for the first time in 2 weeks. I love my boys.

The next day Jeremy and I were on our way up to New York City. We left early and arrived at Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn around dinner time. Along the way we experienced a few rain storms and Jeremy caught his fourth fish, a good sized Atlantic Bonita.

Arriving in Brooklyn was an exciting experience. We had made arrangements to stay on a mooring ball at a member-owned yacht club that was actually called Miramar Yacht Club. This caused some confusion when people asked us the name of our boat..."No, I mean what is the name of your boat?" The second we stepped off the boat it felt like we had been adopted by a large Jewish/Italian family. We were greeted by members who immediately wanted to know everything about us and feed us.

The Brooklyn neighborhood where the club was located was an adventure in itself. Everywhere you looked there were hundreds of people "doing their thing" as loud as humanly possible. The neighborhood was very culturally diverse. There were restaurants of nationalities you would be hard-pressed to find in Portland OR. It was so ethnic friendly that I got lost once because the name of street I had to turn on wasn't written in English on the sign. Despite the amazing diversity in that area, somehow everyone knew we weren't New Yorkers. Every place we went to we were greeted by "So, where are you from?"

While we were in Brooklyn we made it in to the city for our much belated anniversary dinner. Jeremy and I went to a stylish sushi bar with a large Buddha statue awash in ever changing colors. The sushi was quite good as was the wine we selected.(And since it was our anniversary dinner Jeremy didn't roll his eyes when I did the full wine acceptance procedure with the waiter)

After dinner Jeremy and I met up with Micah to go see a movie. We had wanted to see Transformers 2, but its reviews were so terrible that we picked a cheesey comedy called Hangover instead. We had plenty of time before the movie started so we hung out at a bar for a while. At this time I think Jeremy began his you have to go sailing with us speech. Two days later we set sail for Connecticut with Micah on board. You'll have to read the next blog for that story.