Before Mike and I get settled for the evening watching our ‘stories’ (Just bought Season 3 of Downton Abbey. Yes!! I am dancing with glee.), I’d like to report that we may be personally responsible for sending another soul down the slippery slope of boat addiction. And we feel pretty darned good about that. How did we meet this vulnerable being, you ask? Why, through this blog! Along with being generally fun, it’s also a good social networking device, apparently.

Mike and John examine the names of ships anchored in the bay. Some of the names are really strange.

We got a comment on the blog from a guy who we shall refer to here as ‘John’ (because that’s his name) introducing himself as someone who was interested in sailing and who was thinking about buying a sailboat. He was currently interested in a Hunter 31. That sounded like a challenge to us and so we took him on.  In fact, he lives in Tacoma only a couple of miles from the marina, works at Madigan Army Medical Center close to where we live,  and is a computer geek, like Mike. He’s at a point in his own life where he’s considering the addition of a sailboat to his life, because, as we said to him, ‘What else are you going to spend your money on?’.  After emailing back and forth for a day or so, we decided he offered us a good excuse for going out on Moonrise this weekend. So we invited him out for an afternoon sail.

It was a great time out on the water and Moonrise was happy to have left her slip for the first time in about a month. Mike and I were happy to be out on the water again, and our new friend, John, was pleased as all get out to be behind the wheel on an actual sailboat. He’s a natural. We actually had the jib out for a little while, but the winds were variable and light, so we feel fortunate that we got even that much ‘sailing’ in. Still, I had made lunch of egg salad sandwiches (due to the extreme amount of fresh eggs we are getting lately), chips, and our favorite beer, so it didn’t really matter if the wind was up. Just being out there, having lunch and fellowship was good enough. As John commented, there is something about just being on the water that allows stress to drain away. Does that sound like someone who is going to eventually own a boat? I submit to you that it does.

The name seems to have nothing to do with the actual look of the ship.

So if we are at least partly responsible for sending John home with stars in his eyes, well, we’re big enough to take it. And we hope to have him back out on Moonrise with us when the wind kicks up a bit. Then he’ll REALLY be starstruck!