Sun baked

I slept in till about 9:15 and it felt amazing.  It was warm in Aequitas' cabin and although my alarm went off at the usual 7:15 I felt completely vindicated in choosing not to leave my berth.  I went and helped put up the mast on the Sea Scouts' Merit 25.  It went off without a hitch.  We only had four people there to help, and after the spinnaker pole was rigged as a lever arm I cranked on the winch and the mast popped up light as a feather.  I can only hope that with practice and the right length shrouds my own mast will go up as easily.  I still need to measure to make sure the back stay and fore stay are the right length.

After the mast was up and the rigging was sufficiently tight my friend, Gavin, had to climb up the mast to re do some lines.  It's a good thing he has the upper body strength for it, because we didn't have a ladder around.

It's only after I spend a along time in the sun that I notice the crisping feeling on my face and back.  One odd place that I got burnt this time was the tops of my feet.  Quite painful when I have to wear shoes for most of what I do in life.  I can't wait to be bare footing it out in warmer climates.
After the mast project I relaxed in my cabin reading some more of Jessica Watson's book : True Spirit.   It's a good read; very inspirational for someone like me.  I invited my older sister to bring her kids down to the marina for a ride in my new dinghy.  Noah was initially scared, but once he got aboard it was hard to get him back on dry land.  I loved seeing them scrambling all over Aequitas just as natural as anything.  Every now and again one of them would let loose some pirate jargon and threaten to make the other walk the plank.

I also decided to see how easily I could row all around the harbor.  I got over to the yacht club and saw my friend, Bailey, teaching sailing lessons to little kids in Opti sailboats.

It's crazy to see such young kids sailing on their own, but I'm sure I'll want my own kids to be comfortable on the water.  The way I see it, as long as it doesn't make you complacent then the more comfortable you are in a situation, the less dangerous it becomes.