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    Sails Away

    We took everything off of Wind Affair. She is down to a bare stick – meaning the sails are off and the mast stands lonely and empty.  We loaded everything up into the backs of our vehicles and carried it all home. I unloaded and arranged everything down in the basement for winter storage. Then we went out into the driveway to pack away the sails. Emily observed and supervised.         Soon after we were looking at the week of Thanksgiving. (Is it just me, or is anyone else shocked that this holiday has already passed? We are almost into December, people!) We had a new trailer…

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    Year of Music – 2012

    Wind Affair was our “big deal” of the year obviously. We even forwent our annual trip/reunion in Las Vegas in order to concentrate our efforts where it was most needed. Cleaning, refitting, fixing, sailing, etc. However! We did take a few breaks from our aquatic mode to feed another area of our hedonistic side. I consider it to be a core part of my spiritual well being. MUSIC! Our travel funds this year were transferred mostly to the boat fund, but we did set aside a portion of that for concerts. We usually go to one per year, and this year we made many more. And, so here follows our Summer of Music – 2012! Dave Matthews…

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    Boat Names

    Recently, it seems I have come across a lot of talk about boat names on discussion boards, and among boaters and blogs I follow. Some of these folks were searching for advice on whether or not to rename their boat. Others were looking to poke fun and the myriad of ridiculous boat names that are out there. Others still, offer sound advice on things to consider when naming a boat. Because the boat naming and hailing port issue (I will address that in another post) is something that is always running in the backs of our minds, I decided to tag along for this particular ride and give you our thoughts (so far) as…

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    Choices and Decisions – Going Now?

     “It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.” ―    Roy Disney It’s important to remember that everyday we make choices that affect our lives, and the lives of others, because if you think your choice only affects yourself… well, then you have no idea how small and wondrous this world in which we live really is. How insignificant you are, and yet how powerful you really can be. The choices we make affect the way we are perceived – by others and by ourselves. Our decisions impact our lives and further form who we are.  Some we know will only affect the here and now. Others we are aware will…

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    Moons and Skulls

    Perhaps you are familiar with the phrase “Once in a Blue Moon.” We know that refers to something that happens infrequently, but how many people actually know the history of the statement? Well, if you are one who knows, pat yourself on the back and indulge yourself with a favorite libation. Go ahead.. it’s on me. If you do not know, then please allow me to enlighten you! This year – August of 2012 – we will have two full moons occurring in the same month. August 1st was the first one, and August 31 will be the second one – The Blue Moon, or maybe it’s the other way…

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    Happy National Dance Day Birthday!

    Yesterday was Evan’s birthday. In celebration we took out a few friends on Wind Affair. Beth, Bob, Carol, Gerry, me and, of course, the birthday boy himself!  It was also National Dance Day, so admittance onto the boat was dancing:       Evan might have been giving the First-time-aboard-sailboat-answers-to-FAQ-and-safety spiel, or he might have still been celebrating National Dance Day and his birthday. I will let you be the judge. We had a beautiful day of sailing. The wind was shifty as it always is on Geist, but there was more than enough to get us really going a few times.  The weather, too, was gorgeous – temps in the…

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    Concerts and House Guests

    This has been a busy summer for us so far. A lot of it has had to do with Wind Affair, but we have had other fun, too. For example, we went to the Dave Matthews Band concert, and we had friends visit from Texas. Dave Matthews Band is one of our all time favorites. When we moved to Indiana from Texas it was a tough change. Things are to do are VERY different here, as well as how they are done. It’s taken a lot of adjustment. One major highlight for us, however, has been the fact that we live about 3 miles from a concert venue. AND this…

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    Firsts and Ghosts

    Recently, we have had a series of “firsts” regarding Wind Affair. We had our first passengers – Evan’s mom and dad. Our dog, Emily, braved her first time on a boat. We finally got in our first real sail. And we experienced our first time running our boat aground. First Passengers: Evan’s folks came out with us as our first passengers last week. It was going to finally be a nice day out – not the 104 degrees that it had been. The wind was light, but there. UNTIL we got on the boat. Then it died completely never to return. We had packed some snacks (cheese, smoked sausage, graham crackers)  and…

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    Decks, Woodwork & Sails

    Wind Affair has a mast and she’s in the water, so what’s next? Um… Sails. Sails would be good here! We had the main sail cleaned and the head sail converted to a roller furler. We met up with the folks of Sail Care at Strictly Sail – Chicago. They offered very competitive prices and our sails are beautiful. Now, I will tell you that self installing at roller furling system is not as easy as one might think. We fought that plastic for a while, and had to remind ourselves several times that it WAS going to be worth the trouble. But we got it done, and it’s a gorgeous…

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    Masted and SPLASHED!

    Hooray! Wind Affair is finally back in the water where she belongs! After weeks of upgrading and cleaning, and months of patiently (and sometimes very impatiently) waiting we finally did it. Not without a little worry either. Putting up the mast proved to be more difficult than expected as the mast was lying on top of the boat backwards. We were having  heck of a time figuring out how we were going to get it turned around before lifting it up. No crane this time – we had to do it ourselves. Also, we have a serious drought going on, so the water level was dropping (and continues to drop) at a…