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07/20/2006: "A Nor Easter..."

technorati tags: sailing alaska

My friend Mike, a seasoned sailor, came out with me after work for Wednesday night racing. It started sunny with a light breeze but the wind picked up when some storm clouds rolled in and pretty soon it was really howling with whitecaps and suprisingly strong gusts...we were heeled over so far I was sure the boat was going to capsize and I sort of freaked when all the stowed gear including the galley, launched over into the opposite side of the cabin. I took the photo below before the wind picked up.



Anyway, I trusted Mike enough to know he wouldn't let the boat capsize but it was scary for awhile there. I do think it's good for us to push ourselves to do things we don't think we can do...you know, and never get too comfortable in life. There is nothing inherently interesting about being overly safe, am I right?

When we got back into the harbor I ran into my neighbor Aaron (who owns a Catalina 22 like mine) teaching his adorable little boy to fish for herring from the docks. It was very Norman Rockwell...and later at the pub there were more sailors than usual gathered for pizza and beer and I felt very fortunate to know such a fun group of people.

I will be the first to admit that living here can be very difficult at times (due to the weather and isolation etc.) but nights like tonight that make up for it. Oh, and I almost forgot...this afternoon I submitted some of my tidal paintings to be considered for the cover of our regional tidebooks! They put out a call for artists and everything...isn't that wonderful that they want to put original artwork on the cover of tidebooks? Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for me!

Replies: 11 Comments

on Thursday, July 20th, Stephanie said

i've got all my digits x-ed for your tides!

i agree with getting outside the comfort zone - sort of goes with what i said about balance and never clarified so i will now. i meant: how dull is it to be in a state of balance - way more interesting to be balancing IMHO
in painting i'd rather see some complementaries than fully mixed grey, some tension/energy from colors, forms, lines all in the act of balancing - if it's all in balance it would just be one grey circle or something - "my, what a lovely middle value you have there" :P and as i've surfed your gallery i know you know what i mean - no grey circle there :D

on Thursday, July 20th, Kasia said

Alaska rulez!:)
Tidal paintings are absolutely great. The water in them seems to really flow.

on Thursday, July 20th, Elise said

Thanks Stephanie, that could be my new tagline: No grey circles!
:P
Do you have any of your paintings online? I'd love to take a look!

Hi Kasia! Alaska can be great but not *all* the time (trust me on this!)...I'm glad you like the tidal paintings, I do hope one of my pieces is selected but if not, I'm just glad they're putting art on the covers. More art everywhere (that can be my second tagline!)
;)

on Thursday, July 20th, branchewillow@yahoo.com">willow said

That's a beautiful picture of the boats and the sky and the mountains! Nothing better than the dramatic colors of nature!

Right now it's the calm before the storm, as we are waiting for tropical storm Beryl to pass by the shore here. I love it!

on Thursday, July 20th, Elise said

Hi Willow, good luck with Beryl! I like storms, especially thunderstorms, but we never get those here. In the winter there are Taku winds which are not fun at all when there's a chance your roof might fly off...I really do miss thunder and lightening though.

Oh yah, did you ever send me an email about some career advice you wanted? Not sure I can be of much help but I've checked my inbox a few times since then and haven't seen anything from you. I wanted to double check because I get an insane ammount of junk mail and some stuff I accidentally miss.

on Thursday, July 20th, willow said

I haven't sent ya that email yet. I've been far too lazy to gather my thoughts! Well not that lazy, but just thinking about other things.

on Thursday, July 20th, Elise said

No worries Willow...lazy is my middle name!

Just kidding...I even returned that recliner I bought awhile back.

i just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed your email.
:satisfied:

on Thursday, July 20th, berry bowman connell said

Cool!
(not the weather, the pictures!)

Tell ya what. I'll
keep m'fingers crossed
fer ya t'get into the
tidal books if you'll
keep yer fingers crossed
that I get smart enough
one of these days
to actually search out
"call fer artists"
which I always seem to get
done the day after the
deadline.

on Thursday, July 20th, Elise said

Hey Berry, two places you can get call for artists...1. is subscribe to Art Calendar, which has a fairly comprehensive list of calls and also good advice on marketing etc.

2. If you go to bloglines.com you can subscribe to a news feed called "Art Competitions List" which is updated regularly with opportunities for artists of all kinds.

Good luck!

on Friday, July 21st, berry bowman connell said

Thanx, gal!

I've heard of the
Art Calendar, before
and have actually bought it at
stores around here,
but, usually too late
t'really compete.

But, suscribe...
Dang!
How come it's the easy stuff that trips ya up
the most?
And, the Art
Competitions list
sounds way up m'alley!

Thanx!

on Friday, July 21st, Elise said

I was going to offer to send you my old Art Calendars (still will if you'd like) but by the time you'd get them they'd be out of date and would defeat the purpose. Still, the subsciption isn't too bad and I've really enjoyed mine.