Farewell 2012 -- A Great Year

Not much boating activity in December.

I have been enjoying the blogs of two other boating couples: Bob and Brenda on a Saga 43 at www.sailpandora.com, and Dean and Susan on their CSY-44 at www.sailblogs.com/member/autumnborne/.  But both couples have left their respective boats in Florida for holiday recesses from their cruises so their current news is not so sailing related either this last week or so.

At the Harlem clubhouse, we had a work party, ripping out the first floor flooring that got waterlogged during the hurricane and has to be replaced; a small army of willing workers. I also assisting some guys with tremendous carpentry skills who put the seaward wall of the "greenhouse"-like structure of the dining room back into place with shims, inserted in many directions to get it true. I handed them screws, learned and had fun. There was also the interim Board meeting for incoming and outgoing officers to which I was invited in my capacity as outgoing Fleet Captain. Outgoing because since we will be "Down East" this summer, we will not be able to be on the cruise. As the old Yiddish saying goes: "With one tuchus (booty), you can't dance at two weddings." And despite the absence of a usable first floor there was a holiday/staff appreciation party catered on the second floor. The highlight of this lunch party was when my wiry friend, Howard, of the Wednesday afternoon sailing group, padded to the nines and wearing a red suit, white beard and his own white mustachio and jolly personality, was delivered to our dock by the red TowUS towboat with its red light flashing, climbed the steps with a big bag of gifts and distributed them to the 30 or so squealing children whose grandparents had name-labeled the gifts and put them in his bag.

I made one visit to ILENE, late in the month,to charge up her batteries, put back all of the lines which had been removed, washed and dried, take some stuff home, check out the repairs that Precision Marine had done, and snug up the lines that secure the canvas cover under her keel. We have some things to fix, to improve and to buy for her, but I'm taking a break from that.

And three days of land excursions with sailing friends Jim, Josh, Bennett and Harriet.

We have decided, sort of, that while we will go to Maine for the summer of 2013, we will not go the much further distances to get to the northern Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia.

Final tally for 2012: 189 days on the boat sailing or living or both,
                                   22 days working for the boat but not living on her or sailing,
                                   22 "other" days relate to boating such as hanging with boating friends ashore.
It all adds up to 233 days and this does not include the days on the Library chart project or just thinking about boating, which is actually an everyday thing. A great year. I have so much to be grateful for.