Sailing

I had totally lost my joy of teaching, my joy of reading, my joy of gardening.  I felt like a dud.  I did what I was supposed to do at work; actually I did more one on one remediation than I had ever before.  I didn’t feel like I could concentrate long enough to read, sort of couldn’t allow myself to escape the reality of me.  I was interested in the gardening at the new home but it was a bit overwhelming to think about getting started.

I remembered awhile back that Steve told me that they offered a sailing camp for kids down in Alexandria on the Potomac River.  While reading the paper one day, I saw an advertisement for the sailing camp.  It was at Belle Haven Marina.  This is what I wanted to do.  I spoke to Jack and he was excited about the prospect of sailing camp.

The plan was that Jack would be in camp 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and I would take sailing lessons 10:00 to noon.  Michael Sean would go to the Miss Doreen’s and get to play with his pals. 

The first day of sailing I drove down to the marina.  It is next to a public park and has a boat launch.  There are boat slips, dry dock areas and a small shack that houses the rentals of canoes, kayaks, sailboats and serves as a sailing school.

From the Photo Gallery of the Belle Haven Marina, Mariner Sailing School:

http://www.saildc.com/photogallery.php

I heard the clanging of the halyards as soon as I got out of the van.  The sound took me back to my dating days when I was seeing Gary.  I accompanied him in his search for a sailboat, took dry sailing lessons (offered by the local Coast Guard), went on the maiden voyage of “Overtime” and spent two years sailing the Chesapeake Bay.  I never actually took sailing lessons from an instructor.  I had the head knowledge from the course and occasionally took over the tiller. 

In my new single state, I wanted to do the things I would never have gotten the chance to do had I still been married.  This was something I had longed to do for a long time.  There was no room in our life for something like this; I was so excited to get started.  This would be “my time.”