Ramping Up
It's been a really lopsided week. Most of it has been pretty relaxed. On wednesday, however, we took a film crew out into some moderately heavy offshore weather. It started at 15 knots of wind, clear skies and 2 foot swells. Over the course of ten hours, it built into 35 knot winds, 6 foot swells and pounding rain. We sailed the whole time, heeling until the rails were almost under water. The Lynx is a fine, weatherly boat, capable of blazing along at 10 knots while pointing 30 degrees from the eye of the wind. It was the hardest I've ever sailed a boat. The captain, mate and bosun were having a great time. I was terrified. It was a benchmark day - I hadn't realized just how much my seamanship had atrophied after seven months on land. It's days like that one that steel my resolve to push my own boundaries, to open myself to the full range of human experience.

The rest of the week was easy. Fair winds, low seas, enjoyable duty. San Diego is a pretty port with a skyscraper park near the waterfront that sounds some really nice echoes when we shoot the guns at it. I'm spending my spare time practicing knots, studying the finer points of our curriculum and working my way through an excellent book called Seamanship In The Age Of Sail. I may someday get tired of subsuming myself into my work. That won't be for awhile.

Oh, and a couple nights ago, the captain treated us all to a night at the San Diego symphony. The San Diego philharmonic and the London philharmonic played Beethoven's fifth symphony to a sold out audience. It was strange and beautiful.

(I've put some new photos on my Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scuppers/)