Sailing

As I mentioned in passing in my last post, I sail.  My family inherited two tiny sunfishes from my grandparents when I was little and I learned how to sail on those.  Since then, I've worked my way up to 30 ft keel boats. It's all official too, last summer I got keel boat certified and two weeks ago I got Coastal Cruising certified.  Yes I do feel important.  Since then I haven't been able to wait to go sailing again.  I've always enjoyed it, but now every time I think about it it makes me sad I didn't choose to go to College of Charleston just for their awesome sailing team (there was no other reason I would ever go there).  Technically UVA has a sailing team but I mean really? Where is there water near UVA?  I know sailing is the ultimate prepster sport so it fits perfectly I'm just not really into busing two hours for a couple hours on the water.  Oh wait. That's what I do now.  Harbor I sail out of, Herrington, is about an hour and a half away, without traffic.  Herring bay opens out into the Chesapeake and there's this adorable lighthouse you can sail out to.  We go for day trips, so like 5-8 hrs on the water which makes the drive manageable.  We used to sail out of Washington Sailing Marina, which was perfect for the little sunfishes being manned by ten year olds because there was a sheltered lagoon where we wouldn't be swept off into the main current of the Potomac.  But there's this one huge sandbar straight out from the docks that's gotten worse over the years and maybe clears about three feet deep at high tide.  Needless to say it's obnoxious.

But sailing is awesome.  It you've never tried it, do it.  It's not hard to pick up the basics but the learning curve never ends, it never gets boring.  Assuming I don't have to pay for gas, I'm going to be up at Herrington all the time. Aka, this is the other gross majority of my summer plans.