weekend excursions, part one: sailing

y'all, i have been running hard the last couple of weeks. i guess you probably figured that out from my conspicuous silence. so this will be the first of three posts to get us all caught up. think of it like this--you have called me to chat, but i have only about 15 minutes, and too much has been going on to catch you up in that tiny little phone call, so we're gonna have to talk again tomorrow--ok? ok. so.

weekend before last the hippie and i went sailing with our friend harry at his boat, which is a 25-foot o'day. it's moored down at this place called the river rat yacht club outside belhaven, nc. in other words--it's in the middle of nowhere. and we're definitely using the term "yacht club" pretty loosely here. but i digress...

sailing rocks! it was really fun, and only a little bit scary on occasion, and i really want to go again. i learned more sailing terms than i even wanted to know--i now know which side of the boat is port and which is starboard, what a-lee means, what shrouds are, and how to tie a bunch of different knots. (i am better at the knots than the hippie is, but don't tell him i said that. heh.) no one fell in the water, which i think is a good thing since the river in which we were sailing was brackish and filled with jellyfish and crabs--YUCK! the wind was high and the sailing was fast and rowdy--apparently just the way the boys like it. and me, too, if i am honest. it was downright exhilarating! however, i am sorry to say that i have few pictures to show for it. i was just too afraid of dropping my camera into the river!

sleeping on that boat is as close to camping as i care to get, by the way. it's close and cramped, but good enough for a night or two. the saving grace is that the club house has a shower and a full kitchen. this came in pretty handy considering that the second saturday of every month is a big pot luck thing down there. i made crab dip and roasted potatoes with old bay and rosemary. yum! the crab dip in particular was a hit--it's a recipe from a church cookbook i bought last christmas in beaufort. very easy and awesome, so y'all just ask me if you want to know how to make it. anyway--we managed to get some work done on the boat (and by we, i mean harry and the hippie--i was knitting while they did that icky work stuff) and still go sailing both days. totally, totally fun! the only bad thing is that i got a weird--ass sunburn in the shape of a gigantic X in the middle of my back. now i just look retarded. stupid sunscreen...

tomorrow, news of this past weekend, when i was in new york playing and also news of all my new yarn--there's a lot to tell, people.

UPDATE 06/21: harry read this post and protested that the river rat IS a real yacht club, and he's right--i added the quotes lest y'all think it was a yacht club in the sense of white jackets and caviar and captain's hats. it's a shack in the woods. also, apparently the boat isn't moored--it's docked. i made a sailing faux pas there... oops!