I like winter.  I really, really do – even when temperatures are sustaining -30 Celsius for weeks at a time (which happens in January every year); even when the furnace ignitor breaks at midnight (which happened Sunday night); even when it’s too cold for even the kids to want to go outside…  I like winter.  It appeals to the Norwegian in me. 

But I can’t sail in the winter, and I like sailing more than I like winter.  My desire to go sailing is strong most of the time, and right now it’s especially powerful not just because of the weather, but because it’s officially ‘pre-season’: the TBYC and LSYA schedules have been posted; I’m currently taking a weather course; I’m enrolled in a Rules and Tactics course in Minneapolis for mid-February; the boat (see pic) is now in indoor (and heated!) storage so we can now do glass and electronics repairs; I got new gloves for Christmas; I just renewed by Sailing World subscription; planning for the offshore races has begun; Francis Joyon just smashed the round-the-world solo non-stop speed record (57 days, 13 hours, 34 minutes, 16 seconds) by two weeks; planning has begun for the Lightning Canadian Championships being held in Thunder Bay this year… all these little things are piling up and priming me for the late April lauch.  Three months to go…

I expect the sailing dreams to start soon. They’re sometimes pretty fun, like sailing a boat in road traffic.  The paranoid nightmare version is trying to navigate a shallow and twisty stream.  Doesn’t sound scary, but when it’s your Dad’s boat, it sure is.