I’m not sure how to follow that last post from Brian. When we finally sat down yesterday in the cockpit with cold glasses of wine, we just looked at each other and said, “what a day.” And had to laugh. But in reading his post later that evening, which he dashed off while I made dinner, I noticed he forgot a few things. (Also, for my Snug Island crew back home, who texted me last night — I was NOT dropping the kids at the pool. Thank you, Brian.)

In his account, he didn’t include my own personal tragedy of the day, nor did he acknowledge his own graceful fall while furling the headsail (he somehow managed to break a second toe in the process, then proceeded to moan like a wounded wildebeast for a solid 20 minutes). Anyway, earlier in the day from hell… While he was downstairs, jamming a bung into the thru hull to keep our boat afloat, I was managing the sailing, keeping us cruising along at 8ish knots. As I moved from one side of the boat to the other, looking for oncoming traffic, I caught my comfortably slippered foot (everyone sails in slippers, right?) in a lifeline. Off popped my left slipper and into Long Island Sound it went. I watched it bobbing as we sailed away.

Normally, I think we would have considered this a good opportunity to practice an MOB drill and try to retrieve it. But with the boat and crew in the shape we were in, I figured Brian wasn’t going to appreciate me crash tacking and attempting to douse the sails just to get my slipper back. At the end of the day, I know we’re lucky and one lost slipper is not a big deal. But man I loved those slippers and my feet were really cold this morning!

On the bright side, the kids were absolute rock stars yesterday. With all this going on, they were quietly listening to books on tape that we had downloaded from the library. Thank god for wireless headphones and public libraries. Even once we were safely tied up to our mooring ball, they continued listening to a book about a WWII submarine, the USS Tang. As we were sitting in the cockpit, decompressing, we realized they were still downstairs, listening quietly and eating the aforementioned Doritos.

Before long, Oliver had taken out our kids’ encyclopedia and was showing Elliott a map of Europe and explaining where the different countries involved in WWII were. Boom! First day of homeschool, done! We’re crushing it.

Happily, we made it to New York City this morning without further incident. The valve for the leaking thru hull still needs to be replaced, the bilge pump isn’t running properly, the VHF is intermittently working with no rhyme or reason and the boat is still a mess. But we’re here and tomorrow, we’re going to start having fun, goddamnit!