Yikes! This is our first post since Halloween. (Thanks to our number one fan, Ian, for noticing!) It seems we missed the month of November entirely — possibly an act of subconscious wish fulfillment, as I would like nothing more than to see November 2016, along with all of its attendant horrors, entirely erased from the annals of human history. I could say that the lack of blog posts has to do with the fact that we’ve been unusually busy with stuff both sailing-related and otherwise, but, to be honest, the devastating outcome of the election drained me of any desire to write about boats or future plans or anything else, really.
Supposedly, life goes on — and so does the little saga of Pas de Deux.
At the beginning of November, Benn and I completed a sailing course in Ft. Lauderdale so that we could learn, you know, how to operate the boat that is supposed to be our home and primary mode of transportation during the next several years.
There’s so much to say about the course — and, believe it or not, I already have a few half-written posts about it that I’m planning on putting up at some point in the near future. For the moment, however, we’ll have to content ourselves with sharing a bunch of photos. (You can find a little slideshow at the bottom of the post.)
Unfortunately, I don’t have much time to write anything else at the moment because, as chaotic as November was, December promises to be even more hectic (although slightly less threatening to global stability or the furtherance of human rights in the United States and elsewhere), and we’re right in the middle of packing up and preparing for the chaos.
In a little less than a week, we’ll be going back to Ipswich — and plenty of excitement awaits. Not only will I get to meet Pas de Deux for the first time, but we are also planning on taking her out for her maiden voyage (since we’ve been her owners, obviously — at almost 39 years of age, she’s not really a maiden any longer, sorry to say). While the chill air whipping across the Orwell estuary in mid-December won’t be quite as pleasant as the gentle winds of south Florida, we do both have very warm coats. And, we won’t be going far or doing much — we may not even put up the sails — but our course left us so impatient to test out everything we learned that we don’t want to wait until spring. Hopefully all will go well. In only a few short weeks, you can read all about it here (or not, depending on how great the calamity).
Last night, Benn and I both had dreams in which we were sailing Pas de Deux. In both of our dreams, we were confronted with a tangle of colored ropes and had to figure out which rope led to which sail and how everything was supposed to work. The difference was that my boat sunk and Benn’s stayed afloat. I’m not sure that either of us really has the gift of prophecy, but, if one of us does, let’s just hope that it’s Benn.
Slideshow:
Pied à l'Eau 