the social 355

So I'm walking down this back street in Oxford, Maryland.  It is cool and grey and a light rain is falling.  I have a duffel bag over my shoulder.  Walking next to me walks a woman.  She wears a knit cap and her face shows that she has been in the sun and wind all day long.  She has a bag strung over her shoulder too.  There is a couple in the street walking their dogs.  The woman glances at us, notes the bags over our shoulders, and says "You two look like you are running away."  My friend smiles and says "We are."

My companion that day was Kristen.  We had sailed her Cape Dory 32 MAGDALENA around from St. Michaels to Oxford on a blustery day.  What was I doing sailing with her while SPARTINA was tied up at the dock in St. Michaels?  Long story.  Weather and a couple of commitments conspired to make this fall sail a little bit different from my usual trips.  Less sailing and more social than most of my cruises.

Not only did I sail with Kristen on her boat, I had a guest out for a sail on SPARTINA.  I've never done that before on a cruise.  And how did I find myself at a yacht club in Rock Hall, the only San Diego Padres fan in a room full of Phillies fans, as we watched some playoff baseball?  Did the woman sitting across from me really have to remind me we had met last year and she had called me crazy?  And what about the cookies and tea on the farmhouse porch on Queenstown Creek?  How can I explain a woman visiting Iceland deciding to buy me a sailing book and chocolates?  And why was a retired two-star admiral kneeling in SPARTINA pouring rum into a row of plastic glasses for Dark and Stormies?  Long story.  But a good one.  

I hope to start the logs next week.