Small Steps

 It’s been a week of small steps, little satisfaction for the man who wants everything yesterday.

Jon viewing the scenery at Taylor's Mistake

On the good news front, our ship has come in.  Literally.  The container with all our worldly belongings from Columbus has made it’s way to Lyttleton via Norfolk and Singapore.  Geography lesson, Lyttleton is the major port for Christchurch, 20 kliometers southeast of the city.  We were very fortunate that our ship didn’t go to Auckland first.  There’s been a labor dispute with port management and the dock workers up there that has tied up shipments there.

Having said that, it will be another two weeks before the contents of our container are delivered to the house, May 2 for those who are counting.  In the continuing realm of paperwork, the contents need to be inspected by the NZ MAF (New Zealand’s equivalent of the US Department of Agriculture) to make sure that we’re not bringing in illicit animals or insects, or even worse, non-Kiwi soil.

The week before the ship was due to arrive, I received an e-mail asking for further description of items listed in our container’s inventory from the MAF.  Never mind that this was the third inventory and after three different forms describing the state of pertinent items to the MAF.  In the forms, you’re asked to identify goods that may have soil on them or if you’re bringing plants or animal-based products.  Yes, I left my coon-skin hat at home and have diligently scrubbed anything that remotely had contact with soil, patio furniture, garden tools, bike and the soles of all my shoes.

The latest queries were about boxes labeled House Items by the movers in our inventory.  Now there are two problems, one, these boxes were re-packed by the movers out of our eyesight and two, have a hard time remembering the contents of my pockets from last week, forget about two and a half months ago.  Using my best Sherlock Holmes skills I deduced the range of items from the rooms the goods were packed.  Forget about the specifics of each box, my nightmare was that if I misidentified the contents of one box, I’d encourage a thorough search of every one of our 231 items.  And what are the items that draw red flags, tennis balls and the prospect that I might have “football” shoes because I listed footballs in the inventory of items. 

We’ll just keep answering questions and hope that our belongings get here eventually.  At this point I’ve forgotten what non-cardboard nightstands and coffee tables are like and rather enjoy our sawed off plastic bottle sugar bowl and pencil holder.  I have to laugh, we were told that our container has already cleared NZ Customs before it even got to Lyttleton.  Ask no questions and I’ll tell you no lies.

My adventures in the world of Sports Medicine and plantar faciatis continue.  A week after the cortisone shot and the pain killer has worn off and I’m down to a mild ache.  I’ve now been introduced to the world of podiatry and have video proof that I walk on my toes and rotate my ankles in.  Twenty-five years of goalkeeping will do that.  I now have orthotics and am hoping to get released to start activity again on Thursday.  Get ready for the heart attack.

My “employment” endeavor continues to be enjoyable and therapeutic.  Thank you Selwyn Ladies.  While we’re still winless, we’ve come a long way from week one.  We got absolutely drilled in our first game by Hornby 9-0 and after a 3-0 loss to Avon we broke the drought and scored a goal last week to lose 5-1.  This past Saturday was a game with High School Old Boys, league leaders who had beaten Hornby 13-0.  The potential for disaster was ripe, but the girls did well.  We lost 7-2, but in the realm of positives we were the first side to score two goals off them and managed to not allow a goal after our goalkeeper got sent off.

Where's Jon?

Thanks Beth for a brilliant afternoon at Taylor’s Mistake and it was literally a mistake for us.   Slug man was ready for a Sunday at home and my wife, Dora the Explorer, wanted to go for a drive to Lyttleton.  After a morning contemplating an afternoon in my reclining chair and Beth insisting she wanted to get out for a drive, regardless of whether I came, persistence beat resistance.  A map would have been a good thing to bring, but then again we never would have found Taylor’s Mistake.  Apparently Taylor’s Mistake was named for the sailing equivalent of our trip, ships thinking they were sailing into Lyttleton pulled into the harbor there.  The beach is amazing there and it’s a big spot for surfers.  Hills and cliffs surround the harbor and there’s a great trail that goes around the perimeter.

Jon on the trail

Life continues to surprise me in amazing ways if I just slow down to see what’s there.  As I’m writing this, I just got an e-mail that our goods will be inspected by MAF on Thursday.  The world doesn’t revolve around my schedule and that’s probably a good thing.  The journey is good.

Wild Allysum (guess who snuck in these photos? :)

Beth's observations (cont.)

- Shoes. Well, actually lack thereof. Living in Christchurch (and maybe everywhere in New Zealand?) means that shoes are optional. The teenager who delivers our circulars walks the neighbourhood in barefeet, as do lots of students on campus. I like the lack of commitment to footwear but can't help thinking about how stepping on the unexpected stone might hurt. ouch. I guess I'm just too soft. :)


- Birds. Interesting to see birds just walking around. They fly too, of course, but I suppose that since there aren't too many land-bound animals around to prey on them, there's not as much need to fly. Makes sense to me. There's also a bird that sings outside our bedroom early in the morning. I practice imitating his/her call as I lay in bed trying to wake up: two notes, about an octave apart, don't have the key yet. I need more practice.

- Apologies. I think it's interesting that the first item on a lot of meeting agendas is "Apologies/Welcome." How nice for the meeting facilitator to apologize for making us come to a meeting! I now realize it's not that at all, but instead an announcement about who isn't able to make the meeting. I still think it's cool to begin a meeting with apologies.

- Dogs.  While it's not uncommon to see people walking their dogs on leashes, it's just as common in our neighbourhood to see dogs walking along the sidewalk alone. They're not stray dogs. They're just out for a walk -- by themselves. Yesterday, I noticed a couple of dogs wrestling on the lawn in front of a house down the block. One of the dogs lives at the house. The other one, Jon told me, lives on the other side of the reserve (park), a couple of blocks away, and just wanders over to play. Silly, but I have this image of Tatum barking outside the door: "Can Sammy come out and play?" Yeah, OK, what Tatum would really be saying is: "Is dinner ready?"

- Bus Drivers. What can I say. I love the bus drivers here. In the morning, I head out the gate behind our house and the bus is waiting for me. It's the end/beginning of the route so it's where the buses hang out when it's break time for the drivers. It's usually just me boarding at this point so I wait around and chat with the driver until it's time to take off. Last week I was heading into the office on Easter weekend and didn't realize that they were on Saturday schedule. This meant that I'd arrived 15 minutes early. Rather than sitting in the bus and waiting, I decided to get some exercise and start walking down the hill.  I told the driver that I'd keep track of his schedule and wait when I got to a bus stop around the appropriate time. No need, said the bus driver, I'll just slow down and follow you until you get to a place where I can stop. And he did. :)

Coming home from work, I sometimes take the #3 since it comes twice as frequently as the #21 even though the #21 takes me to my backdoor.; the #3 drops me off at the bottom of the hill going up to our place and it's a long, steep  hill. The first time I walked up the hill, it took me 45 minutes. Two days later, I was feeling many muscles that I hadn't felt in many, many years.  Although I haven't walked up the hill too many times, I have it down to about 38 minutes and my legs, etc. are feeling much stronger.  My record is tonight though. I made it up in a miraculous 18 minutes, thanks to my dear bus driver who spotted me about 60% up the hill and stopped to pick me up. How could I refuse? :)

That's it for now.
Cheers and love,
Beth

A note from Beth

It's about 9:30 Monday night and I'm sitting in our living room in one of our two comfy chairs, next to our snazzy cardboard coffee table (no furniture shipment yet). There are windows and patio doors on two of the walls which allow me to look out over the strip of city lights coming from houses along the peninsula between the ocean and the Estuary (where I had my sailing lessons). A couple of hours ago I could see the ocean and the mountains in the distance. Amazing. 

Yesterday we spent the day with a University of Canterbury colleague and his wife, along with a former colleague from Ohio State and his wife who were visiting. We drove a short bit out of town and stopped at Pegasus Bay Winery, which we learned has won many, many awards which is saying a lot given the amazingly high quality of NZ wines! Walked through the gardens which were filled with native plants (who knew you could get figs off a tree and not just from the grocery store? don't get many of those in Toronto or Columbus), and tables for elegant dining outdoors. Then for some wine tasting. The six of us went into the wine-tasting part of the restaurant. Looked much like a very nice stand-up bar except that wine was on tap. What a concept. We sampled a sauvignon blanc-semillon blend (excellent) and then a riesling (excellenter). I looked around to see who to pay for the samples. No need, wine samples are free. I actually live in this country???

After that, our friends took us to a great place to tramp (read: hike) not too much further along the road. We're used to hills in Christchurch but driving off the main road towards the coast reminded us of our visit to Kaikoura a couple of weeks ago: vistas, vistas, vistas. Anyway you turn provides an incredible picture.

We started out on the trail only to see a sign saying "Any dogs found on this trail will be shot."  Ouch. I guess they're serious. Thankfully, we left our kids at home. We climbed over a couple of fences with the aid of conveniently placed ladders and then headed out on our tramp. After a short walk we came to a fork in the path. We were told that the one to the left was about an hour walk leading us down to the beach though was pretty steep going down so as wonderful as it would be hanging out at the beach, we would face a tough climb back up. To the right was a gentler hike that would take us to places with great views, also about an hour in length.  Being the tough souls that we are, we chose the right path, er, the path to the right.

The views were pretty amazing: hills, valleys, ocean.  It was also peaceful. The only other people we saw were a middle-aged couple resting on comfy recliners made of bent over tall grass by the side of the path, and a family with a small dog (not shot, as far as we could tell.). As we proceeded along the trail, we discovered that some of the valleys weren't very dry. Turns out that following the leader meant that your shoes/boots got even wetter than the person in front of you. Being the renegade and taking to the right of the water sometimes paid off, and sometimes meant that you'd discover an even deeper and muddier hole. Squish, squish, squish.

After about an hour out, there was consensus that we should head back. As much as I was enjoying myself, I have to admit that I was also looking forward to heading down all those hills that my legs had felt on my way up. I'm still not sure how it happened but there were more hills to climb going back. How is that possible??? Some of us stopped regularly on the way up; always important to admire the view. :) It turns out that this tramp would rate a 2 out of 5 on a scale of difficulty according to NZ standards.  Boy, do I have a ways to go!

Cheers folks,
Beth

Plugging along (update from Jon)

Hello to our loyal (or occasionally interested) blog followers, we hope all is well in your part of the world.  We continue to plug along.  We had a great Easter weekend in Kaikoura.  Holidays are a big thing in this part of the world.  Beth has a three week break from teaching (basically the week before Easter and the following two weeks).  That doesn't mean she stops working, just that she has the opportunity to spend time on her research and gets a chance to breathe.

We drove up to Kaikoura, about a 2.5 hours drive north of us.   Kaikoura is renowned as where the mountain meets the ocean and the last hour and a half of the drive is amazing as you go through the mountains and then come up the coast.  As a drive, we actually encountered our first section of road resembling an American highway, two lanes with marked exits and off ramps.  It lasted less than ten miles and then reverted back to the typical New Zealand highway, single lane each way with the occasional passing lane only for the major hills. Holiday traffic, trucks and horse trailers, hills and my self-imposed speed limits (or intolerance for those that drive well below it) are not conducive to enjoying a vacation.  I’m afraid my efforts at patience and not reverting to “Dr Death” are still a work in progress.    Sorry Beth.

Kaikoura is a tourist town for all levels of tourist.  Backpackers, motor homes and hotels, everybody has a place to stay.  The concept of backpacking is probably not something I want to be doing at this point in my life but is definitely a cool way to see the country on a budget.   Charter buses bring loads of backpackers into the town and there are “lodges” that sleep from two to eight in a room, the bigger the room, the cheaper the rate.  There are tons of fast food/fish and chip/burger places as well as bars and if you’re a twenty something, you have all the makings of a good time.

For the more budget minded families, lots of them rent camping/sleeper mini-vans for a week.  There are parking lots on the beach as well as proper motor lodges where you can rent spaces.  It's funny to see people getting dressed in their camper, windows full open, oblivious to the world outside (sometimes curtains are a good idea).

We stayed in a simple hotel up the road from the restaurant/bar strip of town.  It was a five minute walk into town which after the first two passes was nice, but after that you get the feeling that it’s a nice place to visit, but probably a tough place to live.   Having said that, it was a spectacular weekend.

Saturday morning we were signed up for a whale watch.   There’s a company that has a fleet of five boats and they take you out on the water to see whales and assorted other wildlife.  There is a check-in station in town and after a brief advisory, you bus out to the boat.

 A major part of the advisory portion was that a “Motion” advisory was in place.  In other words, failure to take proper medication would have dire consequences.  While Beth and I were adequately prepared, there were a few Asian passengers who didn’t get that memo.  Unfortunately one of them was a gentlemen seated directly behind me.  It was amusing to hear our tour narrator talk about “sea legs” and what to do if you start to feel queasy until you realize that my Asian friend understood none of that. 

The water was fairly bouncy going out and while it’s a fairly big boat, you’re moving quickly to get out the whales and it’s an even bigger ocean.  20 minutes into our two hour cruise I hear him wretch in my ear as he fills his bag and I’m greeted by the sweet smell of puke.   Ugh.

As we headed out to sea there are lots of seals in close to the coast and then you don’t see anything but seabirds as you get further out; not to say the birds aren’t amazing.  There are Wandering Albatross which have the largest wingspan of any bird.  Our narrator explained that they get into the thermals and just glide.  They have the ability to shut their brain down and “sleep” while flying.  Nature’s auto-pilot.

Three miles out to sea is the continental shelf and the water turns from blue to black as the water’s depth goes from 20 meters to 400.  You can’t help but think back to people sailing these waters to travel as opposed to flying today.  I’m not a water guy, but I completely respect and appreciate the courage and adventure it took to get here 150 years ago.  You realize you’re just a speck in the ocean.

We saw a sperm whale while we were out there and the locals know all the whales in the area by name.  Down by New Zealand you only get male sperm whales and if I remember correctly, it’s because they’re bigger than the females and have more fat so they can weather the colder waters.  The only known predator to sperm whales are killer whales (Orcas) and the particular male we saw was famous for having fended off some killer whales that were taking on another sperm whale.  Sperm whales only come up for about 10 minutes to re-oxygenate then go down below.  They don’t really do a lot at the surface, but there still pretty amazing doing nothing.

As we headed back to shore we stopped to see a herd of duskies (dolphins).  On the entertainment spectrum, they’re show-stoppers.  We saw a pack of probably 50 and they're non-stop.  Synchronized swimming, back flips, front-flips, they’ve got it all going on.  As was explained to us, when the dolphins jump out of the water and slam down sideways, it’s to disorient smaller fish in the area so the other dolphins can feed.  Flipper needs to eat.

When we got back to port, we took a drive up the coast and there’s a cut out from the road where you can pull over and see a colony of seals.  Straight down the sheer drop off there were probably another fifty seals sunning, pups playing in the rocks.  Definitely not Ohio.

On the domestic front, we’re now a two car family.  We bought another Yaris.  Unfortunately on the current path we’re on,  I coach two nights a week and then have games on Saturday which effectively leaves Beth home without a car.   New Zealand has a version of e-bay called TradeMe.  You can get everything on TradeMe.  We found our house on TradeMe and now the car. 

The car was a great deal and provided Beth with quite the adrenaline rush as she ended up making the winning bid as the auction ended since I had training and she had to make the decision as to whether to make what proved to be the last bid in a showdown with the only other bidder in the final seconds.

Lastly, I’m hoping I’m finally on the mend with my foot.  I was able to get into a sports doctor and got a cortisone shot for my plantar faciatis.  After an initial assessment, the crux was that I’m really tight (no kidding), I’m told that I have plantar faciatis (another thing I already knew), and that I had two treatment plans, shock wave therapy which consists of a weekly treatment, over five weeks and after three weeks they assess whether it’s working and it doesn’t always work, or the shot.  I took the shot.  I’m still tight and I’m probably going to need another appointment with a podiatrist  to get orthodics (inserts for my shoes) as one shot is not going to fix 50 years of walking on my toes.

That’s it for this week.  Life goes on and that’s a good thing… 

Kaikoura

We just got back from a wonderful Easter weekend in Kaikoura. For those not familiar with Kaikoura, it's a town about 2 1/2 hours north of Christchurch on the Pacific coast.  One of the town's slogans is "where the mountains meet the ocean" and that is definitely truth in advertising. What a beautiful place, with great weather to match. We didn't see a cloud in the sky the whole weekend.

Our activities on Saturday included going on a whale watching excursion. Saw lots of great wildlife including a sperm whale, dolphins and albatrosses (albatri?). The waters were a bit rough with waves splashing over the front and sides of the boat, and a few of the passengers made use of those handy little paper bags. (Though it definitely doesn't compare to our "extreme" ferry boat ride in Malta a couple of years ago -- remember that, Jen, Lou, Amy, Adam??? :) We also saw a large colony of fur seals; the pups were especially fun to watch as they chased each other around the rocks.

On Sunday, we went four-wheeling through the hills of Kaikoura. Just amazing and so much fun. Our guides have 1,600 acres of land by the ocean where they raise sheep, cows and four-wheelers. The picture below is from the top of one of their hills overlooking the ocean hundreds of feet below. We spent about 2 hours driving through the hills and streams, seeing some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen.

Can't wait to take visitors! :)

Video: Bussing it down Mt Pleasant hill

In case you're interested in the scenery or are just looking for something to distract you for a few minutes, here's a link to a youtube video (my first :) that takes you on the bus I take down the hill from our house on my way to work. I'll try to get another one sometime when it's sunny out and the tide is in.

Cheers,
Beth

And this is where we are – an Update from Jon

In a cruel joke, daylight savings time fell on April 1.  The cruelest part of the joke was on a day that I could have reaped the rewards of having an extra hour of sleep, I was up at 5am.

And what do you do at 5am on a Sunday morning in Christchurch?  You put on the coffee, turn on the TV and watch football.  Real football (soccer).  Between ESPN and Skysports we get a ton of European games, Champion’s League, English Premier League and La Liga .   Sunday was a true bonanza as we also got the Final Four basketball games.

In the realm of NZ tv sports I appreciate Rugby, enjoy Cricket (if you’ve got a day to fill) and can’t fathom why anyone would  create netball and furthermore, put it on tv.

On the non-tv/enterainment realm, my routine these days has precluded running.  Middle age malady, plantar faciatis, strikes and in the interests of not being completely stupid I’m taking a little time off.  Apparently running on the Mount is not helping.  I tried running for a week after finally figuring out a route that was not completely Himalayan and after realizing the shooting pain in my heel was not getting better, thought the doctor might be in order.

My introduction to the New Zealand medical system was pretty unbelievable.  Between my heel and the need to get my presecriptions set up getting a doctor’s appointment  was only a matter of time.  One of Beth’s colleagues recommended a doctor and I called to make an appointment.  I called on a Thursday morning at 10am and explained we were new in the area and I wanted to see if the doctor was taking new patients.  Based on my American experiences I was figuring maybe she was and maybe next week for the appointment.  The receptionist told me she has an appointment at 11:15 and 11:30 that day.  Welcome to New Zealand.

I get to the doctor for the 11:30 appointment figuring that I’m going to spend 20 minutes filling out my medical history and providing insurance information.  I’m greeted by the receptionist who hands me a blank piece of paper (no form, just plain white scrap paper) and a pen and asks me to write down my name address, date of birth and phone numbers.  That was the complete paperwork. 

I then meet with the doctor, explain my medical history and the medications I’m on.  One of the medicines I’m on for my asthma is very expensive in the States even with insurance.  The doctor logs on to her computer and checks their National Prescripton Database.  In minutes she can tell me the NZ equivalent and costs.

In NZ all costs are up front, you pay at the time and then you get reimbursement from your insurance.  The cost for my appointment, $38NZ, blood work - $7.50 and I qualify for a free flu shot.  The cost for a three month supply of one of my medicines is $3, no prescription card and the pharmacist has it ready in five minutes.

My biggest disappointment was that after finding out that the pain in my heel was plantar faciatis, that I needed to make an appointment with a Sports Medicine doctor.  In NZ, sports medicine doctors are specialists and an appointment to see them is $150 and there is a two week wait.  The good news is rest is helping.

On the coaching front, life has been interesting.   First and foremost, I completely enjoy the team I’m coaching.  The season started two weeks ago and we had two practices before our first game.  In the interests of getting a bit of background, I asked players their preferred position as I tried to figure out a line up and system.  The exercise revealed that I had six strikers, four inners, one defender and one goalkeeper; not the foundation of any system found in modern hockey.  

Everyone I’ve met has told me this was going to be re-building year and being the naïve optimist I sometimes try to be, I’ve thought to myself, we’re going to be ok.  Two practices and one long pre-game tactical meeting and our first game starts.  Ball gets in to our circle in the first 30 seconds and only by the grace of God and their player kicking the ball in to the goal are we not losing.  Within two minutes, we don’t have to worry about that as we give the ball away to one of their girls who says thank you very much and rips a shot into an empty net.  67 minutes later, we lose 9-0 and never get the ball inside their scoring area.  Not a lot you can say after that.

The goal for our second game was improvement and a re-think of what we know, what we’re able to do and what the best use of our training time is.  We lost 3-0 last week and it was a complete moral victory.  We are extremely young and not very deep as a team.  I realize that I need to be patient and positive with them.  In our first game we talked about how we’re going to make mistakes and it’s all about how we respond to them.  It’s the story of my life.   We have a two week break between games for the Easter holiday and another chance for redemption April 15.

Finally, I got to see a glimpse of the future.  While we’re still waiting for the boat with our belongings to arrive, ice hockey season started in Christchurch on April 1.  I have a team and went down to see the rink and introduce myself.  The rink is interesting.  While there are boards and glass around the ends, the protection above the boards along the length is fishnet.  Good thing  there are no spectators.  I don’t want to form instant judgments after watching one period hockey but the standard was better than I thought and my goal is still recreational.

That’s it for now, Kaikoura awaits.

Beth tries to sail (and succeeds, sort of)

Had sailing lessons this weekend and actually did some sailing on my own this time, rather than observing from the instructor's boat. It was challenging and fun, but mostly fun. I had a laser, a small boat about 14 ft in length. I was not the only middle-aged female adventurer learning to sail last weekend; Angela also took the lesson. Angela had taken the course the previous session and had done very well on the theory end but failed the practical test out on the water. Given that she had been a former phys ed teacher, she found it both comical and embarrassing that she'd failed beginner's sailing. By all accounts though, the wind was pretty fierce on her testing day.

Thankfully, the winds were quite forgiving for us. But before getting on the water, we had to learn how to rig the boat: putting the sail on the mast, putting together the mast and the boom, attaching the mainsheet to the boom, tieing down the various parts (just in case), hooking up the rudder, etc.  "Is that a figure eight knot you used?" (Yes) "Which way does the rudder point when you're tacking?" (It doesn't matter. Just push the tiller away from you.) "Why are some sails bigger than others?" (Bigger sails can give you more power.) "Can we use that little green sail?" (OK). It turns out that there's a YouTube video of a guy rigging a laser in 6 minutes. It took us about 45.

On the first day, Angela and I took turns in a single laser, sitting in the small rubber motor boat with Eric, the instructor, when it wasn't our turn. I felt like I was learning to drive a manual transmission car all over again, figuring out how to coordinate the clutch, brake, and gear shift while looking ahead and not running into anything. In the case of the laser, it was coordinating the tiller, tiller extension, the mainsheet (rope), switching from sitting on one side of the boat to the other, changing the hand I'm holding the tiller with, looking ahead, not running into anything, not capsizing, and not getting my feet tangled in the ropes. I've been operating motor boats since my age was in single digits, but this was completely different. I'd also windsurfed a bit as a teenager but never quite understood the wind nor this tacking/jibing business so was towed back to shore more than once (thanks dad).

I think I'm getting it though. Angela and I took turns tacking and jibing to do figure eights around markers in the Estuary, sometimes more elegantly than others. Meanwhile, Eric would shout from the rubber boat: "Don't let go of the tiller!", "You're a mile from the marker!" "Move your bum up closer to the bow!" "Tack! Not jibe!" Apparently patience is also a virtue when you're teaching beginner's sailing.

Fortunately for me and Angela, the sun was shining and the wind was kind. And while there were several close calls like when I let go of the tiller doing a tack and the boat ended up going north, south, east then west, I managed to stay rightside up the whole afternoon. So did Angela. We felt exhilarated at the end of our session.

On Sunday, we decided to take the plunge, so-to-speak, and each have our own laser to sail. Tony was our instructor this time, a really nice 68 year old former mechanical engineer who didn't mind volunteering his time to teach sailing. Tony was helpful, cheerful and encouraging. He was also full of useful tidbits of nautical wisdom. When sailing upwind, hold the sail in and work the tiller to keep going in the right direction. When going downwind, let the sail out, and work the sail to keep moving (disclaimer: Tony is not responsible for any errors of fact or interpretation.)

A loud horn went off as we were heading out on the water; laser races to start in 10 minutes! Oh dear. A flotilla of lasers made their way out onto the water. What if we get in the way of the other boats??? What if we hit one of them??? What if they don't see us???? Don't worry, said Tony, with your small bright green sail, everyone will know you're a beginner and stay clear. I guess we were sorta the equivalent of someone riding a racing bike with training wheels and wearing a bright orange vest. Whatever.

Our second day ended as successfully as our first. No capsizing although I had one near-event which reminded me that I still have a lot to learn. Sadly, there is only one more weekend of sailing this season then the club is closed until spring in September.

I wonder what new activity I can work on acquiring over winter. Ideas anyone????