All at sea

It was a fine evening so I took a stroll down across the park and along the waterside by Årstaviken. And, passing one of the boatclubs there, I saw a Folkbåt out on the water.. just a jib up, slowly going nowhere in the evening airs.

They're coming in I thought, I'll stop and watch.. but it soon became apparent that they weren't going anywhere. Jib-sheets appeared and got attached.. with the ends taken straight to the cockpit.... and the foot of the jib, a foot off the deck - Is it actually attached?

Hoist the main? .. well let's take the jib down first and untangle the halliards...

And setting the sails? Well.. you get the picture?

It was a fine looking boat, and it looked like they'd not had it long and not done a lot of sailing either. I so much wanted to offer to show them how to put things right.. but they were too far off to hail, and the jetty was locked in behind a gate and barbed wire.. so I watched them sail off.. slowly.. with the jib backed...

But I hope they persevere, and learn, because it really was a nice Folkboat and she was built to glide oh so sweetly through the water on that light evening breeze...

The Summertime Blues

Summertime.
After all those long winter nights and the snow and cold now is the time you've been waiting for. Hot sticky weather and evenings that glide slowly into twilight sometime around midnight. Except this year's been a bit different. Eleven weeks since my first operation and I'm still avoiding all the things that normally fill those summer days - meaning mostly sailing and dance...

Life is rushing by at a snail's pace.... last weekend was a washout - strange things happening in my peripheral vision resulted in another visit to the hospital and the advice to go home and take it really easy until I saw the surgeon again (last monday)... so, knowing that a detached retina can get worse quickly, I spent a worried weekend playing hermit. Which I suppose I've got used to, except that just this weekend I had tickets to see Van Morrison and Joan Armatrading at the Stockholm Jazz festival.. and then on sunday to see John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. Three wannasee concerts (for which I had tickets) and I'm home keeping the teapot company!

The good news was, if you see what I mean, that I needn't have sat home, and probably could have gone to the concert. My eye wasn't (quite) as bad as I thought. The retina is though very tight stretched round one edge which means there's still a risk it will split again... so it was amber rather than green this time.

But... better than another operation and starting over. And good enough I reckon to ring Annika and say YES to Sailsalsa. True I have to abstain from the dance AND the sailing, but I will at least get out among the islands, with book and beach, and hopefully some sun to go with it....

So... the ferry goes tomorrow...