Great rowing practice

Sitting here on a mooring at the Castleton Boat Club and just found out that I can get wi-fi here on the far side of the river so I am taking advantage of using a real keyboard. There has been some excellent rowing practice to be had, what with rowing back and forth across the Hudson in a stiff breeze, with gusts over 30. Add in the current and it can be quite exciting. The procedure is to look up and down the river to see what sort of boat traffic there is and then go for it, conditions permitting.

I was delighted to see a small boat coming down the river with its mast on deck, and pull into the boat club. Rowing over, I wasted no time introducing myself and offering to help them with their mast, explaining that I  was singlehanding and could use a bit of similar assistance when finished with theirs. Dave and Pepe, Canadians both, agreed to participate and we hope to do the work early tomorrow morning. They've got a 27 footer, mast stepped on deck, so it should be very straightforward. They are happy to get the help, because it is a new experience for them. Pepe is the owner, and relatively new to sailing.

It has been very windy and the tidal current has been strong so White Seal has been thrashing about a bit on her mooring with the dinghy bumping into the topsides on a regular and annoying basis. What happens is that the big boat is affected more by the current, and the little one is affected by the wind, so the two are constantly butting heads with each other as in a gladiatorial contest.

I've taken the opportunity today to do a ton of reading from a book that Mary, my mother in law gave me, a 900 page novel by Ken Follett which is very good. It is much cooler and with the wind I gave up on doing much of anything on deck. But I gotta get that mast up and get going!

Charlie