An Introduction...

Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate

When I was just a little girl, I pretended I was a pirate.  I was rarely the mean pirate*, the swashbuckling one, the one with a parrot or a wooden leg or even the one with a sword.  I was nearly always the one climbing the masts to release the sails, or I was the one up in the bucket yelling, “Land!”.  I was the one adventuring to far away lands, sharing the camaraderie of rum and a badly sung song.  The one sailing off into the sunset.   

When I casually mentioned sailing to Jim this past winter, and I saw the light in his eyes spark, I was just a little scared.   Jim makes things happen.  That’s what that spark means. And Jim and I don’t do things ‘sorta’.  We’re all-in kinda people (though I have a more fair weather streak than he does). So the question was, am I ready to make this more than pretend?  

And the answer is YES!YES!ABSOLUTELY!  I want to sail away into the sunset, I want to travel the world meeting new people and new cultures, I want to have adventure and boredom on the high seas.  I want to worry about kraken and floating containers, and batteries, and seeping boats.  I want to take the pretend dream and turn it into reality!

But first, I want to learn how to sail. 

Tonight is the last night of the ASA Sailing 101 class offered through the local parks and recreation department.  We’re doing some sailing practice, going over crew overboard procedures and maneuvers, and probably some review.  Next week I’ll take the certification class.

It’s important to me that I become a proficient sailor independent of Jim.  And because we’re learning together, and because he learns at a much quicker pace than I do, I don’t want to let him fill in my gaps or pick up my slack.  So, our education process will probably split here.  He’ll pursue a more gungho-learn-it-all-right-this-very-minute-by-osmosis style, and I’ll pursue a slightly-slower-give-me-time-to-process-and-think-it-through style. 

And we’re both on our way to making those dreams of sailing away more than just dreams.

-Adrienne

*Thievery, yelling at people, wenching, pillaging, raping and killing hold little interest for me.  And present day pirates are a little too badass and mean for my tastes.