The past year has been revelatory as we didn’t work on AV much, didn’t sail as much, didn’t post anything. We took other jobs, repaid favors. Travelled a little. In other words, we took a year off.
And it was miserable.
Not actually, of course. I read books (several!) and did sewing projects. Dinner parties were held regularly. Daniel did several large projects for both fun and profit. We weren’t idle. But we weren’t working on Ariel either. And she knew it.
I like to joke that AV has failed in the gentlest ways possible; our disasters have been survivable and fixable. Anthropomorphizing boats has been going on forever, but it’s hard not to see her as a choosing being, sometimes. So, after stringing her along this year with small projects and maintenance (sails and sailcovers, varnish on the sprit, new shaft coupling, refinished the decks), it’s time to get back on the stick and start making big improvements.
Just to let her know we love her.