Sailboat and her Ball

sunset

Headed home to Oregon for a week of much needed R&R.   It’s going to be cold.  Lately I’ve been missing my time on the road, when I could change my weather in a days drive.  For now I’m stuck in Morro Bay.  Fortunately, it’s a good place for me.  The surrounding landscapes, influenced by California’s crazy coastal weather, is a photograph in need of capture.  The boat is parked on a mooring ball about 50 yards from the dunes, or a few hundred depending on the tides.  The easy skiff ride to the sand has Nora asking if we can stay forever.  Morro Bay is a boat friendly harbor.  The people here make being new and broken down in town a comfortable and easy experience.  Everyone I’ve met here as offered assistance in getting Selene back in shape, it’s a true boating community.  It’s been an up and down battle over the past few weeks, trying to figure out how I barely covered 100 nautical miles before being down for major repairs.  Wondering if I’m capable of sailing as far as I want.  Debating wether the struggle of keeping a sailboat sailing is really worth the joy.  Realizing it’s not even joy I get from sailing, but some sick satisfaction.  Getting ready to sell the boat, build a camper trailer and hit the road again.  Then when I hit that point of giving up, it comes to me that as soon as I give up the boat I’ll start dreaming of another.  Please don’t tell Selene I had these thoughts, she’s far too good a boat to have such a doubtful sailor onboard.  Thankfully she’s such an elegantly tough little boat and I’ve come full circle.  I found a mast last week and I’m in the process of moving it to the harbor hard.  Hoping to be stepping a Catalina 27 STD Rig this coming spring.  It’s a 33′ stick, shorter and stouter than the one I left on the bottom of the pacific.  All in all it’s turning out to be a God send.  Thanks to everyone for the support, especially Morro Bay!