Tolstoy

Well, sort of. Didn't he say (write actually) something about happy families all being happy in the same way while unhappy families were all different? (Well, yes, he did. First line of Anna Karenina. Hmm, perhaps I should have known that, but I haven't read it for decades. Anyway, it is (depending on translation perhaps) "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

Well. enough. The point is simply that something like sailing is similar. The adventures and other events worth recounting occur when things go wrong. Right now, things really aren't going wrong. I go out; I sail; I come back in. Not very exciting to write about here.

That's my excuse anyway.

I have worked out the problem I was having with sailing very close to the wind. I'm pretty happy with what I can do now: not as good as more modern boats, but not bad. I'm trying lower the amount of panic at key points, such as pulling away from the dock. I've figured out that with the outboard anyway, my boat has a lot of trouble backing to starboard, which is what I have to do to get out of the marina. I can use the motor to do that, however, so a couple more tries and I think I'll get it. I even had it sailing itself for a while yesterday afternoon without going very far off course. That could be really helpful if I can get her balanced well every time.

But the season is coming to an end. Her appointment to be hauled out is in just three weeks. I've decided to have her put back into the water as soon after the end of Spring semester as possible. Doing it earlier is useful, since I don't have time to do anything with here with grading, etc.

I was going to have some work done over the Winter, but the estimates I got were pretty high. Those things might have to wait.