Dolphins and Llamas

Thursday, 23rd of August, 2007
Location: Sailing south from Boothbay Harbor, Maine to Boston, Massachusetts

(Perhaps I'll pretend that there is not a yawing gap in this journal.)

A large dolphin breaks the still water off of our starboard quarter. She is as gray as todays sky, cold and wet. Again she jumps. Shelly and Meredith in their llama hats with llama ears dangling crowd over to watch the dolphin make her course. My llama hat has lost an ear, making me an odd looking character. I pull my remaining llama ear to pieces and rebraid it into two skinny ears so I don't feel like a living victim of llama leprosy. Brendan is at the helm with his hat rigged fore and aft, looking more like a bedraggled unicorn than a llama. Ryans hat is especially large like a turban, dignified except for the ears sticking out from the sides. We are all glad to be out to sea again, if only for a day. Eight days we spent in Boothbay shipyard. Eight days of open houses and daysails, followed by nights of laughter and storytelling at the bar where I'd bring my ice cream cone from across the way. The town was great, no arguments about that, but the truth remains that both our vessel and the brave crew that sail her are far more at home away from the temptations of town. That and we just love the ocean.