Carrboro Yacht Club

I've decided to start a yacht club. I can think of a few potential members. Paul Van Ness: you are in. Eric Chupp is in. Jason Hoey wants in, but he needs a boat. Jennifer is in. Runyon Woods is probably already a member of some yacht club (Beaufort?) My tattooed friend Eric has a 24 ft Columbia; he's in. I'm going to collect a few photos of local sailors and begin my club. Anyone who is interested in joining may let me know. A photo of you or your boat qualifies. I'll find some more sailors. My next post is going to concern boat maintenance, which is my weak spot. Till then, I'm Chris Marthinson.

Found a nice photo set on Picasa

All Wayfarers from Denmark

http://picasaweb.google.com/monicalindhardt/Rantzausminde2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCMvaxLnWz-j6cg&feat=directlink&fgl=true&pli=1#

Back to Deer Isle

Penobscot Bay offers views of Vinalhaven and the hills of Camden. There were a few boats milling around the Bay, and finally we had some open water to sail. It's a thrill to have a small boat cutting through the larger waves in the bay. Jennifer took the tiller for a while; we were tacking alot because the wind was out of the north. I like to take long tacks, because we don't spill our cocktails as much that way. The longest tack took us nearly to North Haven, which made for an enjoyable long crossing. As you can see the weather was wonderful, with clear skies and top winds around ten knots. I spent a little time working on the scuppers, which beautifully cleared most of the water and much of the trash out. I've always been afraid of my old scuppers, after all, they are holes in the bottom of the boat. But they work almost perfectly, and I watched an acorn drop into the scupper and ... disappear! Jennifer and I had a short discussion about whether to sail on around Little Deer Isle to actually return to the Old Ferry Landing. A much shorter way home was to sail to the Causeway between the islands. Both of us were tired, so that was our destination.

The Scariest Black Widow Picture

Courtesy University of California-Riverside

I'm pretty much over the black widow

I'll get back to sailing real soon. I'm still trying to get the story of sailing around Deer Isle finished, but it takes awhile. I will say that my health care experience was very positive. It cost me less than $100 to visit my doctor and get the prescription for the Oxycodone and Valium. It helped that I let them know that I had a huge deductible that wasn't yet met.
Another friend, Eric, just bought a 24 foot Columbia that needs a bunch of work. He plans to clean it up and live/sail it. I wish him luck and cannot wait to see it. Maybe I can do some before and after pictures of his project. I'd love to get some feedback on what the readers like. Thanks for keeping up with my blog, and I hope to make more connections with sailors this way.

Recovering from the Spider

I'm feeling a little better, but I've still got a way to go. My arm was hurting badly last night, but the pain in my torso was less. I'd rather be sailing. I actually still have the spider in a bag. I can't see the red hourglass, but we did yesterday before we smashed it.

Bitten by a Black Widow

This morning I was just sitting at Johnnys on Main St. in Carrboro, talking with Pete and Carter, when I noticed something in the sleeve of my sweatshirt. As I poked at the lump in the cloth I was bitten. I immediately pulled out a shiny black spider : a black widow! Carter jumped up from the table, then looked behind the apple where it hid and smashed it with a paper. It had a big red hourglass shape on it. Definitely a female black widow! And I was definitely bitten.
Carter took me over to her nearby house so we could read up quickly on the matter, Pete helped too. An emergency room visit might be warranted depending on the symptoms, we read. I called my doctor and they asked me about it. I didn't think it was quite as bad as a yellow jacket sting. The nurse reported that if I felt nausea I should go to the emergency room. Otherwise, just take a couple benedryl and keep the affected extremity (my left forearm) down, to restrict circulation. This I did for a while at Johnnys. Pretty quickly, pain began in my arm. Paul came by and sat with me a while, and Thomas gave me a ride home, so that I could rest on the couch at home.
I surfed the internet for two hours, and eventually got hungry. The pain wasn't too bad, so I ate some crackers, an apple with peanut butter, and some leftover salad. Mark gave me a call, and I invited him over to sit with me. We talked, and I started groaning and feeling worse. I called the doctor again to review the symptoms, and they invited me to come on over to visit them. After talking, she decided to prescribe some pain meds. I have never really felt sicker than this before, but the meds are kicking in now. Jennifer is coming home to take care of me now.