There are, as you know, all manner of chores that must be done on a boat, and this was the weekend I was to accomplish this! I had my turpentine, my sandpaper, pots of varnish, a twelve pack- in short, all you need to get a lot of shit done. And, perhaps most important, I was of a mind to work! No distractions! Old Alt would sparkle like a champ!

Five minutes later, Steve had noticed my arrival at the marina. "Huw!" he called, ""Huw! C'mon! we're sailing to Vermilion!"

"Ah, thanks Steve-o, but I got a lot a work I gotta do." It was time to get cracking!

Twenty minutes later we were under sail for Vermilion.

Captain Rob, of course, insisted on sailing his own boat, his lovely Irwin 30 Nirvana. As it was early in the season, I too insisted on sailing my own boat. As it was blowing something crazy, Steve insisted on not sailing his own boat. The Blue Dragon, a lovely Catalina 27, is a delightful boat but perhaps not quite the thing for heavy weather. As Nirvana sports an autopilot, we decided it'd be just as well for Steve to come with me.

Oh, how we flew! The wind was blowing strong, sure, and due out of the west, so we were as close-hauled as ever we could be. Rob, with his autopilot, kept a true course for Vermilion, but I was having all kinds of trouble with my Steve-o-pilot, because Steve kept getting entranced with speed and falling off ("Look! Six point nine two! Six point eight! Seven!!! SEVEN POINT TWO TWO!") and so I was "Yeah, we're sure going fast alright... although not towards Vermilion..."

Because of this Rob beat us handily to Vermilion. We rafted up off of Nirvana at the restaurant, and despite the crowds we were the only two sailboats there. All the others were powerboaters. We could here them murmuring about how pretty our boats were, but frankly I couldn't help but notice that all the powerboaters had crowds of gorgeous young ladies on their crews, whereas I had... Steve.

Maybe it's about time I re-evaluate my boating decisions?