Why it's good that some regattas are only two days.

Since that's the maximum number of days I can stay out in the sun.

It's one thing to be "outstanding in your field",  like haying or such,  but being on the water seems to fly me up real good.  No matter how much I slather on sunblock,  and reapply after sweating it off,  I still manage to get ever so slightly toasted.

Anyway,  this past weekend was the "Can-Am Challenge' in Youngstown, N.Y. which,  for us is just across the boarder.   Kind of odd really,  as we go to the States,  and then ended up sailing in Canadian waters both days.

Whatever.   It was a great two days.  A little lumpy on the Saturday morning,  but that was the only glitch.  Well,  and the Race Committee was a bit of a "shit show",  or at least I seem to recall that that was the term we used.  I mean, I've never seen anyone change the course over seven races so much due to the slightest wind shift.   Totally bizarre.   And well,  our skipper signed up (and ponied up a fair amount of cash)  as he was led to believe it was going to be a "pursuit" race,  but instead it ended up being an "around the cans" type of deal.
We were not in the top three,  let's just say.

These two delivered the boat on Friday,  and as it happened,  I decided to go down to the slip before their departure just to see them off.  

Well,   that was well played,  as there was some help needed putting a reef in the main sail and generally helping getting them away.  The wind was a wee bit strong for the rest of Friday,  and I think the skipper said something like "gusting to 29 knots"?  

Neither of them were able to dare leave the cockpit for the entire journey,  which turned out to be almost seven hours!   That's a long time to hold yer bladder.

One of the rare times Brian wore his life vest.

I however,  decided to drive down that afternoon.  Of course,  that means crossing the border in a vehicle which,  once I actually made it to the booth,  went quite quickly,  so I'm not sure what was taking so long for the vehicles in front of me.  The usual questions,  "Citizenship?"  "Where you going?"  "How long?"  and this one I thought interesting,  "Will you be leaving anything behind?",  to which my answer was,  "Oh,  I'm pretty sure we'll be drinking all of the beer."    

Off I went.

I could bore you with boat pictures and such,  but you get the idea.  

Um,  this:

...was my sleeping accommodation.  I set it up (last) Monday afternoon (shown here)  just to make sure I could,  and that it was in good shape. We've had this tent for,  oh I don't know,  15 years?  But it's only been used a couple times.
 I also went out and bought myself one of those "self inflating" mats.  Went with three inches.

The first night (Friday night) it did take me a bit to get to sleep,  as it seems that the house here must be really,  really quiet,  since every little sound was waking me up.  And I was wearing ear plugs!

Saturday night was better.   It's been a long,  long time since I've slept in a tent.  T.C. was mocking me ever so slightly for my foolishness,  but it was actually not bad.   Plus of course,  they have showers at the yacht club,  so being able to get cleaned up at the end of the day (all that sweat and sunblock)  was the best thing ever.   I swear,  the "shower"  has got to be one of mankind's better inventions.

The thing is,  with these types of sailing regattas,  there are those who sleep on the boat (not me,  too claustrophobic)  and then everyone else who pitches a tent where ever there is some free space.   There just happened to be a park  (that's a google map link)  where others had pitched tents,  along with a couple motor homes.  I was kinda missing ours,  to be honest.

But,  I had the truck parked nearby,  which allowed me to bring all the "stuff" I needed to make the stay more comfortable.  The most important of which was of course,  a small camp stove,  water,  a kettle,  and coffee.   Gotta have that coffee in the morning,  or forget it!

We then had breakfast on the boat.   The skipper cooked up awesome breakfasts both mornings.

Meanwhile,  I've fixed up both the table and the dresser that I mentioned last week.

Originally I wasn't going to bother with the table,  until we had to get it out of the way.   When I flipped it over,  I was then able to see why it was starting to split.  So,  couldn't let that alone.

This is my alteration:

See,  wood moves,  and the way it was,  the table top couldn't move at all.  So I made some retainers to allow for wood movement.

OK,  gotta go.

Thanks for stopping by.