by the seat of my pants

Back home late last night.  Finally.  It was an interesting trip to the Deep South.  Good to be home.  Now I need to start checking gear for my sailing trip just about 10 or 11 days away.  Lots of details are on my list.  Right now I'm checking on clothing. 

That is the bottom inside corner of my Northface convertible pants back pocket.  The inside corner of both rear pockets had torn loose like this.  I called Northface and they said send the pants back, they will resew them for me.  They will probably come back stronger than when they were originally made.  Unfortunately the turn around time for the service is a little over four weeks so I cannot get it done before the trip.  Which is fine.  I don't carry anything in my pockets when sailing.  But I will send them back in the winter and have the work done.  They are good pants, we'll worth the extra money paid for them.

I bought, with some birthday money from my Mom (thanks Mom), a third long sleeve Grande Banks Nylon Shirt for this trip.  I would have said the new shirt is light orange, the tag says it is "coral."  I have bought all the shirts at the Bass Pro Shop, about $30 when on sale.  They are comfortable, quick drying and block the sun.  I also have a couple of short sleeve shirts like this for day sailing, but prefer the long sleeves for cruising.  While spending 12 hours out in the sun I want the protection of the long sleeves.  Not only do I keep the sleeves rolled down, I also like to turn the collar up and button the top button.  I enjoy the sunshine, but at times in can be brutal (not to mention unhealthy).

With two pairs of pants and three long sleeve shirts I am in good shape.  I'll also carry some tee shirts for in the evening when it cools down.

Bruce will like this.  He has always given me a hard time about the eye-glass retainer that I use when sailing.  It has been, for the past several years, a foot long piece of pink nylon line, the kind surveyors tie between sticks pounded into the ground at construction site.  Bruce says they look ridiculous.  He is right.  But they were cheap and they worked.  He threatened to buy, and maybe did buy on one occasion, a proper eye-glass retainer for me.  If he did buy a pair they are sitting unused somewhere in the box of sailing gear.  I just never found a design that looked comfortable to me. While shopping at Bass Pro Shop for my shirt I came across the Chums Mono-Orbiter retainers, part of their tech line.  That is a pretty big name for something to hold my glasses.  But I liked the design, particularly the brightly colored monofilament, and bought a pair.  Bruce, you will be glad to know that the pink string has been retired, at least for my regular glasses.  My reading glasses, used at night, will still have the pink string on them.

Our sailing equipment checklist has for years been a print out of the Watertribe's required equipment list. That .pdf, as far as I can tell, is no longer on the watertribe site.  I've used the one copy I have on several trips, it is getting to be a mess as I use a different notation - sometimes a check mark, sometimes a dash, sometimes a circle - to check off items for each cruise.  I think what I will do is write out of modified version of the check list - we don't strictly adhere to the expedition style race equipment - and publish it here.  Then I can reprint and have a new copy for each trip.

steve