I fell in! Head over heels. First time in my life! We got off just after noon. Sunny, in the low 40's. We skipped along at 4 knots (and better) under roller furler only. Penobscot Bay was calm. we made our anchorage near Castine in good time, 3.5 hrs. No other vessels sighted all day. excellent sailing. Wore pfd jackets, towed the dinghy but kept a ditch bag in cockpit. I went through drills with friend how to pick me up if I should fall overboard. "Let sail go, release raft, motor up." I Radio checked on 16 but got no reply when getting underway! We had a rough sail plan with harbor master and fellow live aboards.
At anchor we fired the charcoal and had a touch of the creature. We got food all prepped down below- very cozy with diesel stove aglow and decided to go on deck for a drink. We had a single visible light ashore maybe two miles off. the landscape was so austere after dark with snow and bare trees that we sat on deck for some time admiring. Temp had fallen to near 32. I played guitar in the cockpit (really well I might add). I got up to attend business over the starboard side and leaning into the lifeline - went overboard head over heels with my guitar in both hands. (I had the lifeline down for the winter slip and in the rush to get off decided I'd put it up underway. Once underway I got caught up in the sailing, never thought of it again.) I popped right up ofcourse (pfd's had come off on arrival) and had roughly three thoughts at the same time. "This water is nothing to be afraid of, feels like it always does." "How will the guitar take the salt." "Sh_t, I lost my winter boots!" I handed up the guitar, threw a leg over the rail after a couple attempts, got my left palm down on the deck and my friend got me over by a clasp of right hands. That was really it. I stripped went below got dry by the stove and came back on deck. My buddy pegged my boots with the search lite and I rowed over and picked them up. Never did find my hat. What do I learn? Living aboard makes me feel so akin with my boat that I let down my guard. I feel too safe aboard maybe. Ofcourse the lifeline should have been up in March with a non sailor aboard or any other time. But he as a non sailor didn't rely on the lifeline, and the carefree capt. relied on it implicitly. muscle memory went for the slight touch above the knee like a thousand times before. The other lesson is not to rush preparations. The first trip of season is a great time to take it slow and not be ambitious with plans. Give yourself some extra time if you can. Ok there's my confession. The water is 37 degrees but it feels like 45. Caleb Crosby B27 Brigadoon Belfast Maine _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
