heaving-to

I am seriously enjoying this sailing season and am going to try posting to my blog a little more frequently than just once or twice per year.  Let me start by posting a follow-up to my infamous 2008 sailing goal.  This past Saturday night, I met my goal.  (blush.)  It was three years later than planned, but it was soooooo worth the wait.  Magical.

2009 sailing goal: the reveal

Since I was such a miserable failure at achieving last year's sailing goal, I've decided to employ my favorite 'strategy for success' for this season:

Lower expectations = higher achievement.

During my flight to Portland earlier this week, I read in Cruising World magazine that "more catamarans are being sold in the U.S. and chartered in the Caribbean than ever before." I'm not sure that I could explain, even at gunpoint, why catamarans have never been all that interesting to me... but they haven't. At all. Maybe I'm a monohull snob, or maybe I just have no sailing ambition whatsoever. Oh gosh, maybe I've lost my sailing mojo.

Actually, the best sailing story I've ever heard -- as told by someone very dear to me -- involved a Hobie-16, Pamlico Sound in NC, 25 knots of wind, and an island picnic. And one of the most accomplished racers in my club is a catamaran sailor/racer. Last summer, when I fell in love with a neighborhood cat and wanted to see if anyone owned him, I bought a pink collar with a name tag that said "Hobie" and my phone number. Unfortunately, we ended up putting the collar on another cow-cat that looked just like the one I loved (...shoulda known when the poor kitty panicked and peed when I picked him up), and it turned out that the real Hobie lived at the house across the street from me and answered to the name 'Henri' (pronounced in a French sort of way.) The unfriendly imposter Hobie is apparently still roaming around Columbus, Ohio, wearing a hot pink collar with my phone number on the tag. Oddly enough, he never came back to visit after the very stressful collar-installation experience...

Anyway... one of my sailing-blogging buddies and his gorgeous French wife -- dyed in the wool monohull sailors, I thought -- recently checked out a giant trimaran on the Columbia River in Portland. And finally, the guy at our marina who gets my award for being the most crazy and annoying and yelling-at-people-oriented sails a Corsair 28. I guess my point is that so many people are having a blast (and/or yelling at people) on a catamaran these days... and I've never taken the opportunity to understand what all the fuss is about.

Well, that is about to change, because my sailing goal for 2009 is this:

Sail a catamaran.

And by "sail," I mean "move briskly across the water, powered only by the wind, while on a catamaran"... or "sit on a catamaran parked on the beach and think about sailing"... or even "snap a self-portrait of oneself, smiling, with a catamaran in the background."

I updated the 'Sailing Goals' section at the right side of my blog. When (not if!) I achieve this goal, I may feel ambitious enough to set an additional goal for 2009, such as "buy cute new sailing shoes... like those cornflower blue mary jane trekkers from the landsend.com site, in a size 9 [cough-birthdaypresent-cough]."

I really think I can do this. Wait - what kind of attitude is that? I know I can do this. It's a brand new season full of amazing possibilities and high achievement! I can achieve this season's goal. And I will.

say hello to li'l miss published author (subtitle: more fun with unattained goals)

My regular readers (and I may be up to six, pushing seven, since I joined the Facebook) have probably noticed that my life strategy is this:

You can sometimes overcome the vast disparity between your talent and your aspirations with an ample dose of girlish enthusiasm.

I recently learned that my enthusiasm has once again paid off, as I have been published in an important national magazine: Real Simple (Yeah, yeah... I know... there's a punch line in there somewhere...)

One of the regular monthly features of Real Simple is called 'Your Words,' and it involves having readers submit their brief (a challenge for some of us) thoughts on a particular topic or a helpful hint or somesuch. Many months later, several of the submissions are printed and apparently the only way you know if Your Words were printed is if you actually read the magazine instead of dutifully adding it to the stack of magazines you subscribe to but never actually find the time to read.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised to learn recently that way back in June 2008 I made the cut and was published in that month's edition of 'Your Words!' The topic was "Share the three things you would love to accomplish in your lifetime." On that subject, your favorite goal-oriented, wistfully-romantic, chick sailing blogger offered up the following:


A lot has happened since June 2008, I guess, because...

• #1 is a no-go (unless of course I find a new best friend with adorable dimples, an off-the-charts sense of humor, and some smokin-hot mad sailing skillz. [Was going to add 'and a nice @ss,' but that seems rather impolite to say right out loud or whatever.])
• #2, per my aging ovaries, is also likely a no-go, at least in the traditional sense, unless we start working on it right this very minute. (see #1 above.)
• Since it does not depend on achieving success in a romantic relationship, #3 will happen, most likely during the summer of 2010!

So how's this for street cred? I know, right?! I'll bet that my Technorati authority rating will surely start to soar now. (What does that even mean?!) Anyway, maybe I should submit a piece to Newsweek, SAIL, or Popular Science next. Hmmm... or maybe not.

2008 sailing goal update

It turns out that my 2008 Sailing Goal was not as 'S.M.A.R.T.' (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely) as I hoped it would be. Sadly, I failed to reach my goal.

If I had my 2008 sailing season goal-setting to do all over again, I may have written something like this:

Spend a year -- perhaps the most special year of your life -- getting to know, and eventually falling in love with, your new best friend (a single man your own age who shares your love of sailing, television, and your puppy-dog... and who actually lives two doors down from you.) Have tons of laughs and hours upon hours of meaningful conversations. Share secrets with each other that you've never shared with anyone else on the planet, and share several mind-blowing kisses (although none while hove-to in the very center of the lake.) Eventually, experience the pain that comes from realizing that his feelings are not, and never will be, the same as yours. Attempt to drown away the memories (and thoughts about the names you had selected for your gorgeous future children) with Cabernet, and then - when that doesn't work - with some nice Australian Shiraz, and then - when that doesn't work - with the cigarettes you gave up 3 years ago. Experience an even more heightened sense of pain (even worse than when you tweaked the muscle in your neck last summer and had nerve pain shooting down your arm that made you cry like a baby in the ER and beg for narcotics) when you learn that he is shopping for 30-year-olds on meatmarket.com. (Although Lord knows that neither of us is getting any younger.) Realize that the pain is too great to be just his 'buddy', and resign yourself to the fact that the most you will ever be to this very special man is perhaps the middle-aged spinster babysitter to his future children. The End.

If that had been my 2008 sailing goal, this post would have simply consisted of the statement "Yay me! I did it!!" :-\

Although I am very sad, I am not bitter (partly because I read in the marie claire that bitterness can lead to those pesky fine lines around the eyes.) I know that everything will work out the way it's supposed to work out, and I ultimately will -- Lord willing -- be happy with whatever the future holds. For now, though, I think I miss him more and more with every day that passes. (Oh dear, I think I've regressed to age 14. Quick, someone hand me the hair mousse and the Aqua Net -- my bangs are way too flat.)

Although I didn't achieve my 2008 sailing goal, it was quite a memorable season -- magical, even. And I lift my glass of Shiraz and my Virginia Slim Light in salute to all of you who did heave-to in the very center of the lake this season... in order to kiss someone special.

2008 Sailing Goal

As a follow-up to my last post, it's time for me to establish my goals for the 2008 sailing season. I love to set goals, and I love to work to achieve them. It is so satisfying to check something off my list -- it's an endorphin rush, even! I've had plenty of training in how to set goals, too. Aside from being a natural-born, task-driven, compulsive list-maker, I am also a corporate 'droid. And every good corporate 'droid knows from all the delightful 'soft-skill' training courses presented at the 'droid's corporation that goals should be "S.M.A.R.T." -- Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. So for this year's goals, I will strive to ensure that my goals are "S.M.A.R.T."

In anticipation of the start of the season, I've been giving careful thought to this topic, but I've been really struggling to come up with goals (aside from the obvious MOB carryover goal, which is more a 'requirement' for any sailor worth her salt more so than just a simple 'goal.') I'd like to singlehand my boat this season, yes, and I'm looking forward to sailing on Lake Erie this summer for sure. I'll have plenty of work to do as Fleet Captain this season, and that will provide many opportunities for sailing, cruising, racing, socializing, and for building my (currently meager) sailing skills. But in considering my options for prospective goals, I've really just come up dry. It's definitely not that I don't have tons more to learn about the sport. I think I've just reached a place of contentment -- in my sailing and in my life -- and I think that my '08 sailing goals should reflect that by being happy and fun instead of so focused and driven.

Therefore, I've decided that my single sailing goal of the 2008 season is:

Heave-to in the very center of the lake in order to kiss a boy.

Since I'm a good corporate 'droid, I tested this goal against the S.M.A.R.T. criteria to make sure that it's a "good goal." Here's how things shook out:

Specific - As I initially wrote down my goal I decided that it wasn't quite specific enough, so I added the criteria that I heave-to in the very center of the lake. This seems pretty specific, right? If after heaving-to and kissing the boy, I determine that we're not in the very center of the lake, it would be necessary to move the boat to the very center of the lake, heave-to again, and then kiss the boy again. When hove-to in a breeze, the boat tends to drift somewhat, so it might definitely be necessary to repeat the procedure several times to ensure the attainment of this very specific goal. This seems very reasonable to me.

Measurable - Heaving-to is a specific sailing maneuver. When hove-to, the boat stops making forward progress. This means it will be fairly easy to determine if the boat is properly hove-to. And as for the kiss, I hope that it will measure quite high in terms of the 'swoon factor.'

Attainable - This goal is admittedly something of a 'stretch goal,' considering my high degree of shyness when it comes to boys and all. But it's an important goal, and achieving the goal will be a reward in itself! (blush)

Realistic - I'm not saying that I have a plan for how I will achieve my goal, but I do believe that it is realistic.

Timely - Well, my season will start on April 12th, and my boat must be out of her dock by October 31st. The timeframe is limited, and the clock is ticking. (Sigh - and in more ways than one.)

In order to keep my goal always in sight, I have created a "2008 Sailing Goal" section along the right side of my blog. When you, my faithful readers (all both of you), see that my goal has been 'struck through' on the list, you'll know that I've been out on the lake kissin' a boy.