Monday, May 02, 2005

Blessing of the sharks and other tales

For those of us who live in northern climes annual blessing of the fleet ceremonies signaling the start of the season are likely top of mind. Check out this story from Bowling Green, Kentucky not a town that comes to mind when we think "sailing mecca," but nonetheless a contribution that reminds us that sailing (or at least boating) can occur anywhere there happens to be water and wind...for example I once taught Hobie classes on a lake outside Boulder, CO. The Bowling Green article titled "Checklist for Those that Boat" is a suspiciously good review of boating rules and regs- though it seems to be slanted to the powerboat set we will have to give our landlocked cousins some credit. On an unrelated note I picked up a New York Daily News this morning, a front page story on two teens blown off the coast of Charleston, SC on a Sunfish. They battled sharks and dehydration for 6 days until finally rescued by a passing fishing boat. They'd resorted to drinking seawater and eating jellyfish, a very modified Atkins regimen guaranteed to slim you down. Having ignored National Weather Service warnings of high winds they were found over 111 nautical miles from when they were last seen, not bad time for a Sunfish.

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