Sail!

I have had such a wonderful day - one that I imagine Connecticut would be like.   I went to a 4 hour luncheon with Therese and her two friends from church.  Janette was the hostess, and Mary is the priest's wife at St. Timothy's Episcopal church.  I told the ladies that this was the fanciest meal I'd ever eaten!  We started on the porch with delicious goat cheese and mango chutney horderves with wine.  We sat and talked for a couple hours, then moved inside for a delicious broccoli and ham omelette casserole.  After this we ate a bowl of fruit - all of this on beautiful china mind you.  And then came dessert!  We had raspberry chocolate mousse and coffee.  The food was absolutely delicious, and the company was wonderful.  These were strong, beautiful, progressive, passionate women.  And it was so empowering to be in their presence.  We talked about everything from religion, education, and gay marriage, to traveling, cooking and palm reading.  Therese is very lucky to have such a lovely community of friends - and I hope to cross paths with them again!

After an afternoon with the ladies, I went out with the boys.  I joined David, Jason and Matthew on their boat to race.  Every Wednesday, the boys race.  It was a beautiful evening, and was cool to see all the sails out on the water.  One thing I learned - it's hard to learn how to sail in the middle of a race.  Everyone is super busy running around, yelling orders, pulling ropes and grinding gears and messing with sails - and I was just trying to not get knocked off the boat.  I learned quickly - thanks to some rope burns and bruises - when to duck my head, get off a rope, and move to the other side of the boat.  There were a few times I went to do my job, but I wasn't fast enough, and Matthew would leap down and take over.  After the first few times we tacked (which I think means switching the side the sail is on) I got the hang of the roles and the energy of the crew, and did ok.  I managed to organize the spinnaker sail that had to go up, and it went up perfect!  I was very proud.  In the moments that weren't frantic, we got to all sit hanging off one side of the boat to level out the weight.  It was really fun - but I think I'd like to learn the lingo of sailing before doing it in a race again.  Oh - and we got 2nd place!  Which I thought was pretty cool.

I'm still loving the life over here on the east coast.  Fancy luncheons and racing sailboats?  That's a pretty good life.

This was my lovely luncheon crew!  Mary, Janette and Therese.

Boats getting ready to start the race - lining up!

The sunsets here are so gorgeous!