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“Remember, it’s about sailing!” — Lin Pardey

Lin & Larry Pardey will be at the Toronto Boat Show this January (11th – 14th)!  Lin writes:

DSC_0019Remember, it’s about sailing!

Spring refit time finally arrived here in the southern hemisphere. With the wind down, rain holding off for a week, we set to work on the paint, the varnish. I got my scrubbing gloves on and began removing spots of mildew that marred the white of the overhead. Every day I laid out a plan for the next item I’d attack. Larry was right there with me until the sixth day. It dawned bright, clear, warm. A light breeze ruffled the water – perfect for applying a coat of varnish to the skylight. “Forget working, let’s go sailing,” Larry said, throwing a wrench into what he jokingly calls “my tidy little plans.”

“But it’s going to rain tomorrow and I’ve already sanded the forehatch,” I countered.

“If it’s going to rain tomorrow, we’d better get out sailing today,” he announced.

CAREFEEDSoon we were skimming away from the jetty. I sheeted in the jib and watched our wake straighten as our forward momentum gave the rudder traction. For the next few hours I forgot about spring refit and was reminded of the rule we’d made many years before when we were outfitting our very first offshore cruising boat together – no matter how long the list, clean the boat up, and get out sailing every two weeks. We’d learned getting out sailing as we outfitted or prepped for a voyage, we can see if our upgrades really worked, check to see if we’d forgotten to put something on the list, maybe even cross some things off as we found they weren’t really necessary. But even more important, getting out sailing served to remind us why we were doing all of this work. That was years ago, and Larry was right, it was the perfect choice this time too. (And by the way, it didn’t rain for three days so the varnish got done too.)

 

One thought on ““Remember, it’s about sailing!” — Lin Pardey

  1. We are SO looking forward to meeting Lin and Larry at the boat show.

    We’re going the “french” style…letting the teak go au naturel rather than varnish. I agree whole-heatedly with Lin that getting out sailing is what it’s all about and varnish goes to the bottom of my list of tasks. Unless you are a committed and meticulous varnisher it ends up looking awful.
    Clean the teak with a soft brush and it stays a nice warm colour.

    We will be doing presentations again this year, January 11, 12 and 14…our subject, sailing to Newfoundland’s Bay of Islands.

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