Let me tell you a little story. Circa 2005 I was kicking around Castine, ME for the summer. I had just graduated and was a brand new Third Mate who had no clue how to find a job. I decided I better stick around and sail on the Bowdoin for the summer because really when you're a new graduate why the heck not. I had a few days before I had to show up for the Bowdoin and there were these two guys that I kinda sorta knew. They were delivering a sailboat from Maine to Rhode Island and asked if anyone wanted to go with them. I raised my hand because I was bound and determined to be an adventurer.

sunrise on day one.  sun & sail. — sunrise on day one. sun & sail.

A couple wool sweaters, foul weather gear and long undies later my bag was packed. I don't even know what we took for food and honestly I don't even remember eating.

Here's what I remember in perfect order...

We were pulling away from the dock. I leaned over to take the line off the cleat. In slo-mo my sunglasses slipped off the top of my head and sunk before my eyes. I was bummed but we were off and I was excited.

It was a gorgeous day. I laid on the deck in the sun. With my wool sweater and pants on because it may have been sunny but it was definitely not warm. I think I dosed a bit.

i couldn't get enough of the sun through the sail.

Then I took my turn at the tiller. It was a nice day but not much wind so we mostly motored.

Night hit quickly and it was 'effin freezing. So. So. So cold.

We woke up in the morning huddled in the cockpit together. I think we kinda sorta all roused at the same time...

it's actually freezing.  spinnaker & cockpit. — it's actually freezing. spinnaker & cockpit.

There was a very, very large LNG tanker just a couple hundred meters in front of us. Honestly, I was so naive that I'm not even sure I knew it was an LNG - I just knew there was a big ship in front of us - and now that I'm sailing that is pretty much my worst nightmare....they probably had no idea we were there.

By midday my eyes were swollen shut.

Remember that little nap I took in the sun with no sunglasses? I burned my eyeballs.

I was officially freezing cold on a sailboat with my eyes swollen shut. It was awesome.

There was no wind and we spent the rest of the trip motoring at an incredibly slow speed.

I spent the last 24 hours huddled in the cockpit trying not to move. I'm sure the dudes I was with thought I was a total head case.

I ran across this photo album while settling into my home...it definitely brought back some memories!