Patricia Danielle

on oct 24, i left for vacation. a vacation that imposed on 2 other people’s vacations. i left to go sailing on chesapeake bay. in a summary, it was awesome. an experience i am glad that i had. i certainly believe thats really what life is all about. experience.

i spent all but 2 of the nights on the 16 day trip, sleeping and living on a 38ft sailboat. a beautiful catalina sailboat. after the first couple of nights, i realized that it was pretty much just like camping, which i love. i cooked and cleaned. pulled ropes and folded sails. organized and kept the travel log. i even ended up hoisted to the top of the mast to fix the metal pole that the sail slid up.actually, i had to do that twice, seeing as we needed to get it up at the start of the trip and had to take it down at the end of the trip.

the first day out we sailed through a storm, only to arrive in annapolis in complete darkness save for the lights from the game being played on the NAVY football field. the next time out, we sailed through Gale Force winds (8 on  the Beaufort wind scale 34 to 40 knots of wind). apparently, this was a bad thing. but because the previous day was about the same, at least water and wave size, i just thought the crazy sailing conditions were the norm. i quickly found out that this was not the case. the rest of the sailing time, as cold as it may have been was, for lack of better words, smooth as sailing.

leftover turkey lunch—- free

sleeping eyemask for complete darkness—- $3.98

finally getting a nap over the long weekend—– priceless

“it is impossible for good and moral people to fully grasp and believe horrific acts. people are generally good and decent. they are not selfish or weak, not ruthless or evil, and not without conscience.”…..on american public after 9/11.

i took 4 days off before getting one last cycle class in before i left on my 16 day vacation.

yesterday was my first morning back.

i ran the hill in claremont.

it was the hardest 5 miles ive ever done.

so hard in fact that my body is super sore today and there is no way i could get out of bed and do it again this morning like i had planned.

“i hate this.”

“what?”

“flying.”

“it beats walking.”

currently in pensylvania. we were picked up by some friends of the guy who owns the boat a couple of days ago and brought to their house for sleep in a real bed after we stopped by their pub for some dinner.

yesterday we spent the day eating dutch food and visiting amish country. nothing i would have expected to do on my vacation at sea, but interesting nontheless. the people in this group are full of facts. like walking encyclopedias about wars, history, sailing, religion, entertainment, weather, etc…..and they are all constantly talking/debating/discussing everything about everything all the time. i dont think i have ever been so quiet for so long in my life.

we have a little less than a week left. wed i will be on a plane in baltimore headed for ca. i must admit, yesterday i found myself a little homesick. ill tuck that little experience away for future plans. note to self: one week away is plenty. that said, the next week will be fun because the couple who came and picked us up is going to be sailing with us in their 42 foot catalina for the rest of the time. the more adults there are, the more occupied they keep each other so i can read and wite in my journal.

so, today we are shoving off from rockhall, MD and heading south along the south east side of chesapeake bay ending up on tuesday night at solomons, MD.