A Day of Sheer Calm

We went out to the Margaret Ann for the afternoon and evening to do some small fixes and tune the rigging. This means adjusting the steel cables that hold the mast and the foresails in place. We've been having some trouble getting things tight enough, as the cables are quite stretched out. Some of the adjustments will probably require taking the mast down and adjusting some things at the top.

We'll only have her in the water another week or so, and so we're not too worried about getting it all perfect right now. However, it's not good to have the rigging too loose, as sudden gusts of wind can smack the mast around and really wrench on the boat where the cables are attached.

It was dead calm. We took the dinghy this time, and the kids spent a good 5 hours puttering around the lake. It's a decent-sized critter, with a 2 HP outboard. We put Spazz in charge of navigation, and the four of them went out together.

It felt like a rite of passage to me. They always stayed in sight, but they went almost all the way across to the far shore. (Granted, our "lake" is really just a ravine full of water, not even as big as some rivers.) I watched them experiment with the excitement of being so independent, and at the same time, cling somewhat close. I saw the responsibility we've been trying to teach them actually get exercised.

We decided to let the sailboat be a motorboat for the evening, and took supper out on the water. It was like glass, and we just let her drift. The kids pulled up alongside, to parental cries of, "Oh, no! Pirates!" We bribed the raiders with sandwiches and juice boxes. Then we gave them a bag of chips and let 'em loose. They were very careful not to get any garbage in the lake.

Dave snoozed on one of the cockpit seats, while I watched the clear sky, the drift of the boat, and the children whizzing in a large circle around us. The fun was finished when Brat Boy decided he needed to go potty. It is hard spending half a day in and out of a dinghy when you're 5. Spazz poured it on when the girls started shrieking, "Oh, no, he's dribbling! We've gotta get back there fast!" This turned out to be hyperbole, for which the girls are infamous. However, it ended Dave's nap.

We came back ashore feeling very satisfied with the relaxation of the day. It really did feel like a day off.