Browse Month: October 2008

Anatomy of a Sailboat

For Jes’ birthday we signed up for the 2-day Beginning Keelboat Sailing course. The company we signed up with is conveniently located just across the street so it was cool to sail around our ‘hood.

The morning started out in the classroom for about an hour to learn how to tie some knots and the anatomy of a sailboat. I learned a figure 8, bowline, and cleat knot. Cool!

The rest of the day was spent on a Santana 22 sailboat and learned how to steer, tack, dock, start the motor, and cast off. On top of that, I finally know where the bow, stern, port side, and starboard side are! We sailed in South Beach Harbor (behind the ballpark) and just south of the Bay Bridge. The wind was gusty but the water was pretty calm.

The weather was really gloomy and sprinkled a little in the morning but the clouds quickly ran away and we were left with a sunny bluebird-sky day. Our instructor was a really cool guy who loves to sail, has raced sailboats, lived on a sailboat, and sailed down the coast from Canada to Mexico.

I am proud to say that I had a great time and survived another day on a boat thanks to trusty ol’ Dramamine!! Woo hoo!! Tomorrow will be another adventure out on the bay and we should be able to sail the boat solo by the end of the day. Oh we’ll see…

Fall is Here!

Boy oh boy…I can’t believe it’s already the 3rd of October.  The season has changed, the sun sets much earlier now, and it rained today!! Soon it will be Halloween, then Thanksgiving, and then we’ll be shopping for a Christmas tree again! Crazy.

After a month of driving to and from work, I decided to go back to my old ways and took BART to work again this week.  Sometimes it’s nice to have a 15-20 minute drive to work.  But then again, I love sitting on a quiet BART train with my newspaper and feeling oh so relaxed when I get to work.  The only stressful part of my commute would be the transitions.  Some mornings (like today), I find myself sprinting from one stop to another.  This morning, I ran across the street to catch the approaching train, got off at Embarcadero and dashed up the escalator, through the turnstile, and down the other escalator to catch the approaching BART train.  Once I arrived at my station, I dashed down the escalator, through the turnstile, and sprinting down to the curb where the employee shuttle was about to take off.  I made it to work in record time…only 30 minutes!!  It usually takes 45 so that was quite a feat.

But I digress…as I was saying, Autumn is here and I can’t wait for the time to change back.  I can honestly say that I never really adjusted to Daylight Saving Time.  I still need that extra hour of sleep.