Finally Safe Under the Covers

Finally safe under the covers for the winter.  (The Canoe is more the outdoors type)

That interminable frostbite season is finally over.  Skipper drained all the water out of my hull, gave me a bath and tucked me in safe under the covers. something he should have done two months ago.

On that last day of frostbiting, I did my best to give him a taste of that he's been doing to me for the past six weeks.  I made sure that my mainsheet caught on his lifejacket on every tack.  I wrapped the mainsheet around his foot a bunch of times. I kept popping my bailer plug. It would have been almost worth the wet cold sail to get him into the drink, but he managed to keep dry no matter what I tried.  Finally I settled for going really really slowly on the last race as the temperature plummeted.

I heard skipper talking to another skipper about a different frostbite series that's going on nearby that runs all winter.  Then, thank LaserPerformance, he said "I may be fanatical, but I'm not crazy".

Anyone Got any Dramamine?

Look at this all day and you'll get dizzy too!

It seems that skipper wants me to get seasick!  We went frostbiting again, and he was so busy trying to win that he forgot to sail.  He fouled a guy in the tight first race, and by the time he did his turns he found his way into last place.  Then he thought the course was twice around and he passed a bunch of boats on the last leg, only to sail past the committee boat on the wrong side and continue on up the leg.  By the time he realized that it was once around he was last again.  Then he ran into two guys who were tied up at the mark (oh, and he hit the mark too).  I have no idea how many turns he did for that one, I was too dizzy to count.  Throw in a couple of general recalls and all I wanted to do was crawl onto my trailer and get under the blanket!

Frostbiting is Frosty, Regardless of the Vehicle

Since there was none of that damned stupid frostbite racing this week, I got to stay under the blankets.  Skipper decided to get his exercise in by going for a bike ride.  It appears that biking in 40-something degree weather is not as pleasant as sailing in 40-something degree weather.  Something about "wind chill".  According to the bike, all he did was complain about how cold his fingers were, how cold his ears were and how much his lungs ached from taking in so much cold air.  I've got to get Skipper some gloves and a hat, ANYTHING to make him ride the bike and let me stay warm!

Get Your Head Out of the Boat, But Not Too Far

While Skipper wasn't looking, I found out that getting T-Boned hurts!

Skipper is insisting on continuing this frostbiting adventure, so it's another day of freezing my rudder off.  (Mrs Skipper and I aren't to happy about it, either).

Five Races, Oh Skipper did well enough in the races, but he kept making boneheaded mistakes that cost us.  He ended up doing pretty well on that race though.  we crossed the starting line dead last after getting crowded out at the committee boat.  We worked our way into 7th place by the last windward mark, but then we got fouled by a guy trying to fetch the mark on port.  We had to luff up to avoid hitting him, then got stuck in irons.  The current pushed us to the wrong side of the mark, so we had to tack twice to round.  When we finally got around we were in last place again.  We was still in last at the last leeward mark, but then skipper made a brilliant tack, going left when everyone else went right, and tacking right on to the starboard layline. He picked off three boats on that last leg to salvage an 8th place finish.  In the next race, because Skipper had his head so far out of the boat that he didn't see the guy coming up on starboard, I found out that getting T-Boned hurts.

Coldfishin'

My skipper decided to sign us up for a frostbite fleet.  The problem is, HE has a wetsuit to keep him toasty. I just have my bare bottom.  I didn't want to be there so I had  little fun with him.  First, I spit out my bailer ball.  There was really not wind, so water just kept filling the cockpit every time the bailer plug got kicked out.  Talk about getting cold feet!  I've been asking him to fix a slow leak all summer, and now it was time for payback.  The cold water made me open up enough to really let a whole lot of water in.  Skipper looked like a fool bailing me out between races, and when we got back to the beach, he had to drain about 2 gallons of water out of me! 

Back safe and warm under the covers