This past weekend was a miserable one to be on land. It was wet, drippy, cold and miserable. I was at Camille's swim meet doing everything I could to keep her warm and swimmable. That said, it's good to be a sailor and have decent foul weather gear for such occasions.
Most of the time as a parent you're catering to your swimmer because they're getting in and out of the pool and getting very cold. The team has a canopy that I always arrive early to get Camille a spot right in the middle of. So, many times I'm huddled on the edge of the canopy, forcing her to eat and wear warmer clothes.
And that's what brings me to sailing. I'd been paying attention to her safety and comfort for about 5-10 minutes and hadn't paid any attention to the outside world. Once I was done, I stood up, stretched my legs and stepped out of the canopy to look around. At that moment, I saw the rain again and felt the cold and was wearing foul weather gear and my first thought was, "oh crap, not this again."
And it felt EXACTLY like coming on watch at midnight, stepping out of the companionway in full foulies and that initial blast of "crap it's raining again." You know you're about to have 4 hours of relative misery and there is nothing you can do other than grab the wheel and hope to steer some fun waves to make up for it.
Of course at a swim meet you don't have that balancing factor of getting to sail. So I went to get a coffee instead.
3 comments:
and no terror...don't forget the terror
As a swim mom, I understand your experience. Swimming in the rain and cold is no fun! On another note, I am an oil painter that paints sailboat paintings and I am looking for photos to serve as inspirations for my my paintings. Do you mind if I use one of yours from your blog? And, can you suggest anywhere else I can find sailing photos? Let me know.
At least on the boat, away from your kids and confronted by the sea's infinite majesty, grace, and power, you could have gotten stinko drunk.
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