Sailing with the Blind

Okay, who saw the title of this post and excitedly clicked through in hopes of hearing about another of my misadventures? Tell the truth ...

Kris and I were asked by the club if we would be willing to come down on Sunday and help out with the Oral Hull Foundation's Adventure Camp. Sight-impaired people from all over the U.S. come to this camp outside of Portland for a week and experience a range of adventures, including sky diving, bungy jumping, white water rafting, and sailing.

We had a discussion about cleaning the boat up that went something like this:

Greg: We should take the powerwasher down early and clean up the boat.

Kris: Why? It's not like they can see if it's dirty.

Greg: Well, that's true. Wait, though, they can still feel if it's dirty.

Yeah, our life is pretty mundane, when we aren't flipping the boat over or ramming into houseboats. The most striking thing about this exchange is the role reversal. If you know Kris, you know OCD. It took me a minute to figure out she was messing with me.

So, off we went this morning, bright and early to clean up the boat and prep for sailing with the blind. There was a moment of worry when I wondered if the blind folks followed Love and Coconuts online, and if so, then how closely. However, that worry passed, since I don't think the internets or the google are braille-ready yet. If we're lucky, we won't have to defend any of our past actions to a board of nautical inquiry, or whatever.

There was a brief introduction to the assembled sailors, where us captains talked a little about our boats. Questions were mostly of the how-wet-will-we-get variety. With light winds, we assured the crew it would be a gentle day. Surprising to me, there were quite a few who were disappointed. About half wanted to really crank it out there.

Dorothy and Kat ended up in our boat. They were our age or a bit older and we had a wonderful time working up and down the river for about an hour-and-a-half.

We got passed by the Thistles, which have about twice the mainsail as us, and we were able to outpace the Day Sailers, which probably weigh twice as much as us.

We had a nice little fifteen minutes toward the end of the session where a healthy NE breeze filled in and pushed us down river at a good clip. When we made the turn to come back to the club, the breeze died out and we had a drifty, light air meander back to the dock.

The sight-impaired enjoyed lunch in the clubhouse and we said our goodbyes.

Weenies on the Water

Mondays are Laser racing nights at the sailing club. The last couple of weeks, they have been having the Weenies on the Water boat show up and sell hot dogs to the post-race crowd. Kris and I got in a sail last night and shared some weenies with the Laser peeps.

It was hella hot, but very nice wind for most of the evening's sailing. I was down early and sailed downwind/upriver a bit, before saying heck with that, and turning it around to enjoy some apparent wind in my overly hot face.

Those of you not connected on Facebook with Kris or I, will possibly not be aware that it's been hitting triple digits here in the Northwest, where we are more attuned to weather that is Northwet.

I fell off and sailed back to the club, taking a couple of minutes to sit on my transomless stern and drag my feet in the water.

After docking, I fell off the end of the dock into the river and got some of nature's AC working to make it a little more bearable.

I hung around and killed an hour until Kris showed up and we launched for our own sail.

We made the downwind run past the Sellwood bridge and then tacked our way back to the club, taking about an hour and fifteen to accomplish all of this, and dodging about one hundred and fifteen speedboats.

I decided that it may be a good thing if we were allowed to shoot at the jetskis and wakeboats. Not just for us, but I think it would make their outing more exciting, too. Careful observation leads me to believe that they are attempting to live out secret James Bond water chase adventures. So, why not help bring it to life (or the alternative) for them?

I volunteer.

As we made our way back in to the club, we fell off and tacked an extra tack or two, to ensure we would trail the Lasers as they made their leeward mark rounding doo-hickey thing, and we glided in to the launching area.

I drove it a little fast at the dock and later I got pointers from the club secretary on taking some speed off before easing up to the dock. Apparently, they don't think sacrificing your wife on the bow is kosher.

Huh.

Things to do near the Sailing Club on the Willamette

From Carol Anne's blog writing project, here are some things to do near WSC in Portland. Similar to Captain JP, our sailing ground runs right through the heart of the city where we live and play.

Get up above it all on the tram or Mt. Hood. The tram link has a picture of the river, just behind the condos in the middle ground, and Mt. Hood in the background. The mountain is about fifty miles from town and an easy day trip.

Get lubricated with some sailors at the Fulton. Part of the McMenamin Brother's Northwest brewpub dynasty, this one is fun, but only picked because it's nearest to WSC. Peruse their other options, which include a couple of classic old movie houses converted to pubs/restaurants, as well as the old county poorhouse and an elementary school, both of which have overnight accommodations and multiple entertainment options.

See Kris on the West side of the river, or Greg on the East side, during the work day. Come on out to Garden Home (G-homeys, represent!) in the evening and have a glass of wine with us on the front porch as the sun goes down across the street.

The Sailing Club

We put the dinghy in the water on Sunday at the club, but didn't end up sailing. The wind was hella blowing most of the day, lots of 20+ gusts and some real shiftiness, too, clocking all over the dial.

Kris took a women's only class for six hours on Saturday and Sunday and I got to sail with her in one of the club 420s for a couple of tacks back and forth across the river. Since the ladies were odd in number, I was allowed to fill in, but only as crew.

Kris did great, despite her worries about tacking. She was able to sail across through mega-chop from wakeboard boats and other sunny day hazards, with minimal hassle. She out-thought herself on the tacks, and had to try a couple of times to get the boat turning the direction she wanted.

She had us set up to go bow into a large wake and then turned at just the right angle as we hit it, to ensure that her crew took three lapfulls of bow wave. All of this led me to believe the I-have-a-hard-time-remembering-which-way-to-turn-the-tiller story was a cover for her secret intentions.

More to come as we get cozier with the club sailors.

A Potential New Home for L & C

Kris and I tried to visit the Willamette Sailing Club, but were thwarted (that's nautical, yeah?) by a rare bit of unstable air gusting into Portland and dumping hail and shooting lightning at us.

We made over this afternoon, in much more mild weather. Toured around and put in an application. Club meeting next week on Tuesday evening and we'll know if they like us. It looks like it's a shoe-in, but who knows? Kris may have a dark past.

Mall Cops

This has absolutely nothing to do with sailing that I can see. However, since I'm the blog captain and nobody's here to stop me, away we go.

What happens when you release two movies about mall security guards into the world at the same time? I'm speaking of Kevin James in Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Observe and Report with Seth Rogen.

My wonder/concern is of the larger effect on our society of putting these two movies out. Who, or what am I concerned about? Probably the psyches of mall cops nationwide, and I guess all who shop safely and securely in malls.

To my question, then. With this much attention paid to the profession, it's not likely that many of the actual mall cops in America are unaware of how they are perceived. Will this comic portrayal in duplicate have the effect of driving off some good mall cops, living us all at risk? Or are we doing the right thing as a society, by showing our mall cops the mirror into their souls, and helping them along the evolutionary path toward their self-actualized potential?

My List

I'm posting a list in response to The Tillerman's call for lists. I'm adding a visual aid, too. These are the two people who won't sail with me right now.

If you've followed this blog in the past (especially last November), then you can probably understand why.

Sigh.



Here's one showing off her 9 stitches from her bike crash.


And here's the other showing off her red-headed flair for the dramatic.



Fingers are crossed that warm weather will inspire the monkeys to try again.

Aloha!