We Arise Again!

Circle:
Hard to believe that it’s time to raise the sails....our second season of sailing! Easter is a big celebration for Pole Pole. Square and I will scrape, sand and paint her hull AND.....

Square:
Well in order to raise a sail we need to get a sail! That being said, the old girl (the boat not Circle) is getting her much needed replacement “parts’. If you recall, last fall was a short season because of two things.
(1) We are new sailors and didn’t get the boat in the water until mid-July when I took possession of her, then...
(2) we had a bit of a disaster....kinda. On a sunny long weekend day...whilst sailing....the mast snapped in half. So, sails, rigging, and mast fell into the Bedford Basin. Yup....nothing like drawing attention to ourselves.

Circle:
Which we already did on the rocks.....a few times. Someone (Square) isn’t very good navigator.....good thing Santa gave her chart of the Bedford Basin.
Even though we’re virgin sailors, we knew that the mast shouldn’t do that. There were 3 people on board....Bruce (a well seasoned sailor), Square (the Captain) and me (crew). We look at each other, as if .......that shouldn’t happen, should it?????

Square:
It was the one and only time that Circle was at the helm. She is good at disregarding orders and questioning her captain. We’ve had more fights on the boat and on more than one occasion I threatened to throw her overboard. “CREW”...she’s more of a pain in the ass! So after yet another “post-mortem” on how it could have been a better experience, it was decided that Circle see what it’s like to be responsible and be the “captain for a day”. See what happened....she broke the boat. I might have put her on the rocks...well it wasn’t really me, Circle didn’t take the sail down when asked so we just kept on motoring towards shore...

Circle:
“Oh Captain, my Captain”.....I was busy trying to push Pole Pole from crashing into another boats!!

Square:
Yeah...whatever! Anyways...we’ve drawn attention to ourselves before. So a mast snapping topped anything that happened before....but it’s not the end of the world. I now have a motor boat!!! :)

Thankfully nobody was hurt, Bruce was with us, and everybody was nearby to assist and rescue us once again. Boy, were we the talk of the club!

So after filing “incident reports”, tolerating inspections, and filling out more paperwork...it was determined that the mast suffered from metal fatigue or “osteoporoses”. So a new mast, rigging, and main sail are on the horizon and like a phoenix...Pole Pole will rise again.

Circle:
You know...Square and I decided we needed Seamanship classes. We did that. But, didn’t finish because we went to Ethiopia! And, I had a problem understanding the content of the course. AND, every class, Square whispered to me....”We’re never getting out of the Basin”......pessimist!

Square:
Did you hear that..she had a problem understanding the content! I knew the truth would come out...who really was to blame for being on the rocks. Yup....and this is why Santa brought Circle a hat that says “crew” and I got a Captain’s hat. So we can also read when we need to know who’s in charge.
Process that!!!

Captain’s log ....April 1st, 2010