I could feel blood pressure rise and a wave of stress come rolling in like a storm surge.
At first, I thought it was just because Dice-K was pitching again, but the list of things that needed doing in life made the edge-of-my-seat-while biting my fingernails anxiety of a Dice K start pale in comparison.
I had returned from vacation and life was returning to normal. I hate it when that happens.
This wasn’t any typical vacation. I was on the schooner Victory Chimes for a week. It is quite different from having a week off doing something else. When I’m spending a week or two relaxing at my beachfront cottage in Owls Head, I’m escaping from the world a bit and still manage to pay bills and keep track of the real world on occasion.
While on a schooner, it’s a different story. I returned to the mainland and discovered a week later that the Patriots had traded Richard Seymour. I learned that Republicans were trying to shout down the president (where were protests during the Bush disaster, I wonder?). Kanye West was making news and making me wonder who the hell is Kanye West and why should I care if he’s an idiot. Serena Williams was blowing a gasket on the tennis court drawing my attention to the sport of tennis briefly – very briefly.
While I was oblivious to what was happening in pop culture, I was also out of the loop in most aspects of my life. I lost track of what was happening at work. I had put off all bill paying and responsibilities until my return. My cottage rentals were taken care of for the time being. During my week-long sail, I had managed to put just about everything on hold.
All that was left to wonder was our destination each day, what kind of soup we might have for lunch, when or if Captain Fender Tender might annoy me enough to want to toss him overboard, whether the shirtless guy (who didn’t have a body to be shirtless) would actually wear different clothes at all during the week (he didn’t), whether there might be a good cat fight at the showers or if I could brow beat enough people to buy my book.
All in all it was a very good week. We had fantastic weather all week. There was no rain and no fog. We had sun every day, a few chilly temps and had some wind to sail by. The only drawback was some mosquitoes in the evening that forced us down below on some nights and a part in the steering mechanism that broke. That provided a delay but made things interesting as the Captain jury-rigged the steering and managed to get us back to Rockland without the use of a tow from a tugboat.
Even though it was my seventh trip on the Chimes, I was still able experience things I had not before. After sailing out of Rockland and through the Fox Island Thorofare, we crossed Eastern Penobscot Bay and anchored in Mackerel Cover at Swan’s Island. It was exactly where I thought we might go – in large part because I heard the captain say we were headed for Mackerel Cove. Hey, I’m a reporter. I’m a good listener and a nosey snoop.
From there we sailed up Somes Sound, which was a new treat, we then anchored in Bass Harbor that evening. We sailed to Brooklin the next day and watched another great sunset there. We were going to sail up the Eggemoggin Reach toward Castine the next morning but that’s when the broken steering pin was discovered. It forced a two-hour delay as the captain and crew tried to figure a way to fix a 100-year old part. Being too late on the tide to get under the Deer Isle Bridge, we sailed for Stonington instead. We anchored there for the evening, another first. That brief sail had bent the replacement pin the Captain had used to fix the steering problem. So, to be on the cautious side, he used the yawl boat to push us across Eastern Penobscot Bay. We anchored in the Thorofare and went ashore to North Haven and had lunch off Vinalhaven. Then we continued on to Rockland where we anchored inside the Breakwater for dinner. We had a wedding proposal on board that evening as well.
After dinner, the Captain decided it might be best to try to get into the dock that evening. So, under the cloak of darkness and limited steering, the Captain maneuvered the 100-foot three-master into the slip with ease. I was on fender duty that evening and barely had to react as the boat was guided into the marine quite smoothly. I don’t even park my car that effortlessly – as the scratches and dents on my rear bumper indicate.
But, the early arrival to the dock was too-soon-signal that the trip was over. Many began packing and taking things to their car Friday night. By Saturday morning, the trip was officially over. We said our good-byes and made our plans to rejoin the real world.
In past year’s I’ve had to make the leap quickly. One year I learned within a half hour of getting off the boat that my father had leukemia and had what could have been a few weeks to a few months to live. Another year I had a job interview on Monday for a publishing firm. I spent the next week sweating it out as one of three finalists over whether I might get the job and whether I actually wanted the job. I didn’t get it, probably because I didn’t know squat about the health care industry and my job would have been writing about it. I’m a sportswriter; my medical knowledge is limited to MRI and ACL.
This year I didn’t have events as significant as that to deal with upon my return, but it is still a challenge to catch up on the world and regain my normal schedule. I’m not awake at 6 a.m. to watch the sunrise anymore and I don’t have coffee delivered to me at 7 a.m. any longer. The things like coffee, bacon, sausage and eggs that I eat on board the Chimes are pretty much off limits for the rest of the year. I’m back to eating healthfully, I hope. I don’t have a cocktail hour at 4 p.m. every day and now snacks are no longer provided at 5 p.m.
What I do have is a job to get back up to speed on. I have bills to pay, rentals to book, books to sell, books to write and a Facebook page and blog that has been neglected. I have things to do, stress to manage and a pennant race to follow. Dice-K is pitching again. Tom Brady is playing on a wobbly knee (aren’t we all?). I have a life to live and distractions to distract me. Life isn’t as simple as it was a week ago. But I’m not eating till I’m stuffed this week and I have pretty good steering. So it isn’t all bad.
And, I have a vacation coming up in two weeks.
At first, I thought it was just because Dice-K was pitching again, but the list of things that needed doing in life made the edge-of-my-seat-while biting my fingernails anxiety of a Dice K start pale in comparison.
I had returned from vacation and life was returning to normal. I hate it when that happens.
This wasn’t any typical vacation. I was on the schooner Victory Chimes for a week. It is quite different from having a week off doing something else. When I’m spending a week or two relaxing at my beachfront cottage in Owls Head, I’m escaping from the world a bit and still manage to pay bills and keep track of the real world on occasion.
While on a schooner, it’s a different story. I returned to the mainland and discovered a week later that the Patriots had traded Richard Seymour. I learned that Republicans were trying to shout down the president (where were protests during the Bush disaster, I wonder?). Kanye West was making news and making me wonder who the hell is Kanye West and why should I care if he’s an idiot. Serena Williams was blowing a gasket on the tennis court drawing my attention to the sport of tennis briefly – very briefly.
While I was oblivious to what was happening in pop culture, I was also out of the loop in most aspects of my life. I lost track of what was happening at work. I had put off all bill paying and responsibilities until my return. My cottage rentals were taken care of for the time being. During my week-long sail, I had managed to put just about everything on hold.
All that was left to wonder was our destination each day, what kind of soup we might have for lunch, when or if Captain Fender Tender might annoy me enough to want to toss him overboard, whether the shirtless guy (who didn’t have a body to be shirtless) would actually wear different clothes at all during the week (he didn’t), whether there might be a good cat fight at the showers or if I could brow beat enough people to buy my book.
All in all it was a very good week. We had fantastic weather all week. There was no rain and no fog. We had sun every day, a few chilly temps and had some wind to sail by. The only drawback was some mosquitoes in the evening that forced us down below on some nights and a part in the steering mechanism that broke. That provided a delay but made things interesting as the Captain jury-rigged the steering and managed to get us back to Rockland without the use of a tow from a tugboat.
Even though it was my seventh trip on the Chimes, I was still able experience things I had not before. After sailing out of Rockland and through the Fox Island Thorofare, we crossed Eastern Penobscot Bay and anchored in Mackerel Cover at Swan’s Island. It was exactly where I thought we might go – in large part because I heard the captain say we were headed for Mackerel Cove. Hey, I’m a reporter. I’m a good listener and a nosey snoop.
From there we sailed up Somes Sound, which was a new treat, we then anchored in Bass Harbor that evening. We sailed to Brooklin the next day and watched another great sunset there. We were going to sail up the Eggemoggin Reach toward Castine the next morning but that’s when the broken steering pin was discovered. It forced a two-hour delay as the captain and crew tried to figure a way to fix a 100-year old part. Being too late on the tide to get under the Deer Isle Bridge, we sailed for Stonington instead. We anchored there for the evening, another first. That brief sail had bent the replacement pin the Captain had used to fix the steering problem. So, to be on the cautious side, he used the yawl boat to push us across Eastern Penobscot Bay. We anchored in the Thorofare and went ashore to North Haven and had lunch off Vinalhaven. Then we continued on to Rockland where we anchored inside the Breakwater for dinner. We had a wedding proposal on board that evening as well.
After dinner, the Captain decided it might be best to try to get into the dock that evening. So, under the cloak of darkness and limited steering, the Captain maneuvered the 100-foot three-master into the slip with ease. I was on fender duty that evening and barely had to react as the boat was guided into the marine quite smoothly. I don’t even park my car that effortlessly – as the scratches and dents on my rear bumper indicate.
But, the early arrival to the dock was too-soon-signal that the trip was over. Many began packing and taking things to their car Friday night. By Saturday morning, the trip was officially over. We said our good-byes and made our plans to rejoin the real world.
In past year’s I’ve had to make the leap quickly. One year I learned within a half hour of getting off the boat that my father had leukemia and had what could have been a few weeks to a few months to live. Another year I had a job interview on Monday for a publishing firm. I spent the next week sweating it out as one of three finalists over whether I might get the job and whether I actually wanted the job. I didn’t get it, probably because I didn’t know squat about the health care industry and my job would have been writing about it. I’m a sportswriter; my medical knowledge is limited to MRI and ACL.
This year I didn’t have events as significant as that to deal with upon my return, but it is still a challenge to catch up on the world and regain my normal schedule. I’m not awake at 6 a.m. to watch the sunrise anymore and I don’t have coffee delivered to me at 7 a.m. any longer. The things like coffee, bacon, sausage and eggs that I eat on board the Chimes are pretty much off limits for the rest of the year. I’m back to eating healthfully, I hope. I don’t have a cocktail hour at 4 p.m. every day and now snacks are no longer provided at 5 p.m.What I do have is a job to get back up to speed on. I have bills to pay, rentals to book, books to sell, books to write and a Facebook page and blog that has been neglected. I have things to do, stress to manage and a pennant race to follow. Dice-K is pitching again. Tom Brady is playing on a wobbly knee (aren’t we all?). I have a life to live and distractions to distract me. Life isn’t as simple as it was a week ago. But I’m not eating till I’m stuffed this week and I have pretty good steering. So it isn’t all bad.
And, I have a vacation coming up in two weeks.
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