Back in the Saddle Again

"Come on!  I'm waiting...."
                          -Madonna




     I'm back.

    Now, where was I?

    For those  wondering about my absence from this (occasionally) ongoing saga lately, I've been on a honeymoon, and enjoying almost every minute of it.

    No, not that kind of honeymoon.

    The honeymoon phase of new old boat ownership, when every experience is new and fresh and nothing expensive has broken, failed, or fallen off.  The honeymoon has lasted far longer than I expected it would, especially considering that we did absolutely everything wrong when we purchased her. (more on that later.)

   SWMBO and I have just been thoroughly enjoying NextBoat, buying other new old boats, (more on that later,) I've been racing two nights a week,  (more on that later, too,) volunteering the other nights of  the week and life just got in the way.

   There has just been so little spare time, and so much activity, that I found myself bunged up with reverse writers block.

     It wasn't that I didn't know what to write about.  

    Exactly the opposite, in fact.

    I simply had too many topics, and the plenitude of material caused my mojo to lock up.

    But, with the end of racing season (yeah, more on that later), I have been able to half-assed organize a hazy scribble plan.

    It's been a weird season.  The water level is well up, which is good,but the weather was...  unreliable.  

   Which is bad.  
  
    Spring felt like winter, July felt like April, I think we had a new month, Augtober, and we swam in the lake at the end of September for the first time in memory.

    And some days it felt like we were in the Marina of Despair, with this foreboding flock  ruling the roost atop the light at the Marina mouth: 

    But, we got some solid time on the water,  got some time off the Dock, had some great sunsets, met some great new friends, and I sold a story to Good Old Boat.

    More on that later.

    October is shaping up to be a month with some sailing promise.  

    Hopefully, the Dock will hold together for another few weeks.  We've had higher sustained winds, more often this season than usual, and the prevailing winds out of the West and Southwest blowing against a tall boat on a slip running East/West  have taken it's toll on the Dock cleats and the decking underneath:

      We've picked up some new gear, got some updates on old gear, and low-buck projects past, present and future.

      Check back soon.  Please?

      As always, thanks  for reading, and don't forget to

     "Talk the Dock!"