…that i thought i’d probably never hear again, or at least not anytime soon. What would have happened if i had been here to answer, instead of out sailing the Dink? Weirdness, weirdness… Bless you, little answering machine. Curse you too. Somebody erase that message before i start listening to it again. and again.
Happy New Year, everyone!

Spent yesterday working on the dingy. There’s this little 7′ dingy that’s been laying outside the shop for a couple years now, and i’ve been wanting to get it back in the water for months. This past spring, i put in a few days getting the centreboard trunk back in place, and repairing thwarts. This time around, i’ve spent a day here and there getting a new topmast built, and mounting the gudgeons.
Marty off Bolero passed by one afternoon and saw me working on it. “Ah, the ol’ Dyer Dingy!”, he exclaimed. Apparently, they’re great little sailing dingys (if you can squeeze in under the boom!), and worth quite a bit new. Well, that was fun to know.
Yesterday, i was just carrying on, working on bits and pieces, when it dawned on me: i could get this done today. Not the varnishing, final sanding, painting, etc., but i could get it together just enough to go sailing. What a fine lovely sail it was! Tacking and gybing around the harbour, ducking in between all the moored yachts, playing with the wind and generally goofing off.
The red sail is crossed by a white stripe, emblazoned with a “DD” emblem. The name we’ve settled on around the shop? “Dire Dink”. Yes, yes, it’s that silly… but what is sillier than a 200-lb fellow bombing around the harbour in a 7′ boat?
Today, after a little re-working of the mainsheet arrangement, i’m taking an afternoon off… to go out in the Dink and sail sail sail…