2021 IS HERE

WELCOME TO THE RE-LAUNCH OF MY WEBSITE!

Right as the pandemic hit, I decided it was a good time to update my website. I enlisted the services of a terrific gal in New York City, who was recommended by a long time friend. Great, I thought. This will get me back on track to post more regularly.

Let me insert a giant apology here…

Because that’s not what happened. Oh - we got the website done in jig time. But I couldn’t write. I was frozen. I was stumped. I’d start to write and then I couldn’t. Ideas didn’t come. Worse than just writer’s block. I’d spent money to have the site redone and no one knew about it.

This time coincided with the cessation of any sailing here in Charleston, SC. It was the pandemic. We were about to start our Frostbite Series in January and head directly into Race Week in April. Like everywhere else on the planet, sailing came to a halt as if we’d run hard aground. That’s what it felt like.

We remained hopeful for Race Week, as did the hundreds of boats registered that would come to Charleston to race. Planning was going on. And I’d decided to switch being on the water for Race Committee to going with the boat I crew on offshore. But it was over.

So we stayed home like everyone else. Boats remained on the hard. Meetings were on Zoom. It was a sad time in Mudville. There was no comfort in the fact that it was the same everywhere. We watched replays online of regattas…any regatta. We were desperate as only sailors can be.

And then…Charleston Ocean Racing, who runs the local races, announced: Let’s go sailing! It was the end of May. Not everyone came back right away. People were leery, wearing masks. But we wore them at the dock until we were out in the harbor.

And we were OK.

We’re still OK. We’re in the middle of our Frostbite Series. But the Fall was tough. Bad weather cancelled early races. We remained upbeat. People are registering for Race Week in April. Sailing saved us in the throes of the continuing pandemic. We never stopped saying how lucky we are to be in Charleston.

So the point of all this is to say: the election is over, the inauguration happened, there’s a vaccine and I’m ready to write - about everything BUT the boat. Sailing saved me as it always has. And I guess it always will.

Fair Winds