Normal people

My assumption is that most people who are reading this bit of nonsense that I have been writing for the last couple of months are non-sailors or non-boaters so I am going to try to give you a quick lesson on some of the terminology that we live with on a daily basis. If you are aware of some of the boating lingo then please forgive me because most of what I am about to write is probably not correct, although some of it may be. I don't really know. All of this will hopefully tie into a point at the end, although it may not. Again, I don't really know.

Let's start with some of the obvious sailor lingo:

1. Walk the plank = get off my boat by means of a wooden plank whereby you fall into the ocean and get eaten by a shark.

2. Ahoy = Hi

3. AAAARRRRGGGHHH!!! = too many meanings to count and open to interpretation. Usually spoken by pirates.

4. Shiver me timbers = Shiver me timbers (I have no idea but I say it all the time)

5. The seas be angry = it's rough out and we may get sick...pass me that bucket.

The not so obvious sailor lingo:

6. Lines = ropes (or is it ropes = lines????)

7. Sheets = they cover your bed but they are also the ropes lines that control your sails.

8. The head = the toilet

9. On the hook = when you anchor your boat away from a dock, usually in a beautiful bay.

10. Knots = this term has quite a few meanings and uses and is usually told with some sort of lie attached to it. Some of the meanings/uses are as follows: How I tie my shoes. Speed (1 knot actually equals 1.2 miles per hour...this is usually where some of the lying comes into play... examples - the wind was blowing 45 knots...we were sailing at 12 knots...etc...sort of like fish stories for sailors; the amount of knots keeps growing every time the story is told). How we tie the ropes lines. There are about 400 different sailing knots used to tie the ropes lines but we generally only use one; the bowline. I take that back, there are 2 knots that get used on our boat. The bowline and the “Brenda Special.” The “Brenda Special” is so complex that no mere mortal could ever untie it without the use of either an advanced degree in Knotology (the study of knots), or a very sharp knife.

11. The galley = the kitchen

12. Cheez-its = golden goodness in the form of a snack cracker.

13. Mutiny = when we run out of Cheez-its and the crew tries to take over the ship and return to the USA because we can't find any Cheez-its in Canada.

Anyway, back to the point of this bit of rambling. We have been living on the hook (refer to #9 above) for the last 3 weeks. We have anchored in some incredibly beautiful spots that most people will unfortunately never get the chance to see. We are pretty lucky.

Today we pulled into Ganges Harbor on Saltspring Island in the Gulf Islands. We would normally drop the hook somewhere in the bay (again #9) and think to ourselves how lucky we are to experience this sort of thing. Today, as we were driving around the bay looking for the perfect spot to drop our anchor for the night, we had a great idea to actually pull into a marina and live somewhat like normal people for an evening. By normal people I mean, running water that we don't have to make, an endless supply of electricity, wifi that we don't have to steal, going to the store without having to take the dinghy to shore...just step out of our home and walk up the street. I actually enjoy all of these activities but sometimes its nice to be somewhat normal (its a luxury I normally don't have). So we pull up to the dock and do a couple of “Brenda Specials” (#10) to the dock with our ropes lines (#6) and we are good for the night.

Anyway, part of the reason that we thought of staying at a marina was because the bay was pretty full. I'm talking sardine packed tight full. When you are anchored, your boat swings with the currents and the wind, and I like to have a little room around me to swing. There wasn't any swinging room with all of the boats that were anchored.

When we pulled into this bay, there were zero knots of wind (refer to #10 above – 1.2 miles per hour x 0 knots = no wind) so having basically no room between the boats wasn't that big of a deal. Well, those zero knots of wind picket up to 25 to 30 knots in a matter of a couple of hours. In 25 knots of wind, your boat likes to swing and sway quite a bit and when you have 50 sardines (boats) packed into a tiny tin can (bay) there isn't much room. The seas be getting angry (#5 above) at this point and a few crunches and crashes between some of these sardines (boats) and I was pretty glad that we were living on the dock for a night like somewhat normal people.

So here we are in Ganges. Its a great little town. It has a little farmer's market that Brenda really wanted to check out, tons of shops and restaurants, even an open mic night at the pub at the end of the dock. A pretty fun place to live like somewhat normal people for a night.