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sailing on lake Ontario

2002-10-07 - 12:44 p.m.

Ah, the wonders of being able to sleep in! I finally got some rest after an active weekend. Saturday I hardly got any sleep -- woke up at 5 a.m. and then spent half the day on planes. By the time I got to my friend Shar's birthday party, I was feeling pretty exhausted. Nonetheless, after liberal ingestion of caffeine, sugar (there were many birthday cakes), and alcohol, I managed to remain awake until sometime around 4 (to tell the truth, I don't really know when I went to bed, being a little out of it).

The next day, after getting up quite late in the day, and a wonderful seafood brunch, we decided to go sailing. Now, as I discovered, this was a very different kind of sailing than what I'm used to. Steve (Shar's husband) has a small catamaran, with two pontoons and a tarp stretched between them. The tarp sits only a foot or two above water, and skipping over the waves, everyone gets quite wet. So it ends up being a swimsuits and lifejackets type of affair.

But, being a catamaran, it goes really fast. We made it from the multihull sailing club to the far end of Toronto island in no time, then purposefully dumped the boat on the beach and went to dry off for a bit. The way back seemed a bit slower, and much more cold. By the time we arrived back at the boat club, we were all chattering our teeth.

I'm trying to figure out my schedule for the next few days, to make sure I'm seeing people every night, I guess. I've gotten quite bad about warning people in advance that I'm going to be in town. In some cases, it works in my favour -- the surprise on Shar's face was priceless. But it probably makes the lot of it harder. Then again, I'm so far booked for the next three evenings, and trying to arrange lunches for the next few days, too.

Now it's time to go meet my sister...

Reading: Sailing Alone Around the World, by Captain Joshua Slocum