We spent today in Bonaire, which I knew only as a scuba destination, because a friend of mine spent something like three weeks here over the summer. We arrived in the afternoon as planned, but we didn’t tender as expected. The cruise director made an announcement saying that we had actually docked, and we should all thank the captain for securing us a berth. I’m sure right after that announcement was made, 95% of the people on board forgot about thanking him, so he never got thanked - oh well.

We went outside when we were ready, which was well before our tour at 2:30. We did a little shopping, and I found a bookstore that sold stamps so I stamped four postcards and sent them out from Bonaire. A said I could have just sent them from Puerto Rico with U.S. stamps, but I wanted them to have at least a slight chance of getting to their recipients before we got home! So we shopped around, donated $5 to the Aruba Animal Shelter’s spay-and-neuter project, and shopped some more. Our daily newsletter on the ship had mentioned that not every vendor in Bonaire sold the same thing, as they do in other ports; I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were indeed many unique handcrafted items available. There was, however, a donkey sanctuary booth - yes, they have a donkey sanctuary in Bonaire - that was selling plush dolls of the donkey from Shrek. Oh well, so much for creativity. They also sold plush flamingo dolls, because there are more flamingos on the island than humans!

At 2:30 we went on our scheduled tour, kayaking through the mangroves with the Mangrove Center. As usual, I sat in back to do the paddling, and A sat up front and looked pretty. That’s how we always kayak, because I have lots more paddling experience - unlike others on our tour, I could actually make the boat go where I wanted it to! It was a little difficult getting through the mangrove channels, because at times it was too narrow and low for a high-reaching stroke close to the boat. We made it through, of course, and I pronounced it “too easy” with just A on board - I said I needed a couple extra passengers so I could have a workout! Well, I got my workout when we left the protected waters of the mangrove area and headed across the bay to a little beach. I had a rather difficult time staying in one spot along the beach because the current was so strong, and it wanted to carry us into the shallows where we would have damaged the sea grass which is the primary food for the endangered green turtles there. (We didn’t want to get out onto the beach because we would have gotten MORE SAND on us…I am still finding sand from Sunday!) On the way back across the bay, I got really tired out and I asked A to paddle a little bit. We made it back into the more protected areas and back to shore with no problem.

A was a little grumpy after the excursion, though, so we had room service delivered instead of going to dinner. (Room service is free on cruise ships, though you do have to tip.) I had wanted to go to dinner because I love Celebrity’s vegetarian menus, but oh well - we had veggie burgers and dessert delivered instead. I did run down to the dining room at our dinner time so I could ask the Pied Piper leader about our tour in the morning in Aruba - it’s scheduled for 8:30am!

Well, I am typing this entry very slowly, because if I type with my right thumb the bandaid will fall off. So all spaces are being typed with my left thumb. Possible squicking ahead, by the way.

I didn’t pay attention to the texture of the new paddle shaft. It’s woven, and I had gotten a couple of miles away when I realized…oh shit, it’s destroying my thumb! I ripped off the shredded bit of skin and put my bike gloves on and painfully paddled the two miles back to the dock. My old aluminum shaft paddle was smooth, so I didn’t think to put on the gloves when I set out with the new paddle. But oh my god I can’t describe how much it hurt to rip that skin off and paddle back. All I wanted to do was dip my hand into the cool water and make it feel better, but - well, the Potomac isn’t a Superfund site like the Anacostia, but it ain’t clean neither. The bike gloves were a bit rough rubbing on the very exposed blister, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I had to hold the paddle weird to keep from rubbing my thumb more, so I didn’t have much power getting back to the dock. It was excruciating. I had to grimace and growl the whole way back just to keep pushing myself to do it.

It hurt the whole way home, and then I submitted myself to A for patching up. She first tried to spray it with something that was supposed to be numbing but instead made me howl, so she put some lidocaine on it and that numbed it right up so she could wash it and put ointment on it. She ended up using a huge bandaid that I know isn’t going to last, but hopefully it’ll be on long enough for it to start healing. Lesson learned: put the gloves on before setting out.

Right now I am sitting on the Potomac River. My kayak was fine, still there, a bit cobwebby after two weeks unused (I don’t have a cockpit cover), but fine. I got it halfway down the stairs by myself and I could have made it the whole way eventually, but fortunately one of the employees at the boathouse helped me out.

I have to say, one of my favorite things about living here is the views. I am sitting under a big tree that’s hanging over the river, and it’s very peaceful, but I can turn my head to the right and see both the Watergate hotel and the Washington Monument. My favorite view is driving up 395 into the city, when you can see the Capitol, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial all laid out in front of you. It’s just beautiful.

I’m really enjoying my new Manta Ray paddle by Aquabound. It’s got a fiberglass shaft, so it’s much lighter than my old Flaire which had an aluminum shaft. I’ll probably keep it around as a spare, but the Manta Ray is nice. It’s going to take some getting used to, so I’m going to put the Sidekick back in my PFD pocket and get back to paddling.

I am struggling to give myself permission to not go kayaking tonight. I haven’t been the past two weeks, and I am not going to be able to go next Thursday because that’s when I’m driving to Philadelphia, so I feel like I should go tonight. But I have had one of the most killer schedules today I can remember having anytime in recent memory. I had back-to-back meetings from 8:30 to 12:30, and another meeting at 2:30. Interpreting is mentally exhausting, as you’ve probably heard me say before, and one of the hazards of working in an IT department is that all the meetings are highly technical (and therefore even more mentally demanding), so today’s schedule was just brutal.

But I just bought a $475 kayak which I’ve barely used, and a $110 paddle that I haven’t used at all, and I’m spending about $100 to store my kayak at the boathouse for the summer. (Hopefully it’s still there, at least…my locking system is not as secure as it could be. I really hope its still there, since I haven’t been in a while…I just e-mailed the group to ask if somebody will look for it for me and make sure it’s still there.) I might go out this Saturday…but right now I’m just exhausted to tears! And yet I still feel guilty for not going, given how much money I’ve spent on kayaking. I feel like I want to give up the sport, like I’m not any good at it…A says I only feel that way because I’m tired, but I do feel that way…for the moment.

Today I saw alanscottevil for the first time in about a dozen years. The last time I remember seeing him was at his bar mitzvah (those are done at age 13), and we’re both 25 now, so it really has been a long time since we’ve seen each other. I convinced him to come kayaking with me, something he’d never done before but was game to try. We left out of Jack’s Boathouse - my kayak is stored there for the summer, and they have rentals. I was amused to discover another deaf kid working on the dock there - apparently there have been a few this summer, though I’ve only met one other one. Because most of my gear was in my car (which is at the mechanic) I had to borrow a PFD, and I went to ask if I could borrow one from the boathouse. The kid pointed to his ear and shook his head, so I just started signing. “Oh, okay, you’re deaf? No problem. So anyway, I wanted to borrow this because…” - it was cute because I think he’s not used to having to answer customer questions!

I wanted to take alanscottevil down the Boundary Channel, but I hadn’t checked the tides, and the Potomac was at low tide so there was no way to get through there! We made the circuit around Roosevelt Island instead, and it was really bizarre to paddle around there at low tide. Thursday evenings we always leave at high tide, and it’s a very different trip! We paddled back under the Key Bridge and out to the Three Sisters, and that was the end of our two-hour rental period so we went back to Jack’s after that. I had a really good time, it was a nice gentle paddle with lots of chat and fun…it’s funny, his voice is the same as I remembered it! We spent about half the time going “wow, look how shallow it is here!” so that was amusing.

I’ve randomly decided to sign up for digital cable. We had it before, when they gave us six months free with HBO to entice us into signing up beyond that period…but we returned the digital box and went back to regular. But the cable company has added the gay channel Logo now, and I’m hoping that BBC America will carry Soundproof, and I really liked the onscreen guide, so I’m going to try it for a while. It’s going to be $9/month for the first three months, so I’ll use that period and see how it goes.

I put my new kayak on my car last night so I could go paddling today after work. Part of the reason I rented a space at Jack’s is because I hate putting the boat on the car - I’m always afraid of it falling off while I’m driving. But this is the first time I’m using my new boat, so I have to bring it to Georgetown, and then bring Woody’s boat home. So the kayak is on my little Saturn, and it’s tied down…but I never feel it’s secure enough.

But that doesn’t compare with what I saw while walking into my building this morning: a military helicopter carrying a Humvee. It was suspended well below the helicopter, presumably so it could be set down gently and detached before the helicopter landed. But still…dropping a plastic kayak on the road from about five and a half feet is nothing like dropping a Humvee from a few hundred feet. You’d kill someone with that thing!

I went kayaking last night with the Pirates of Georgetown club. It was a five-mile trip and I found myself really sore for the last mile and a half of it. I figured out why I have such a hard time maintaining proper form - the boat I’m using, which is Woody’s Gulfstream on long-term loan - is too wide for me. But I’m going to keep using it as long as he’s willing to let me, because I can’t afford to buy one of my own. In fact, I should probably buy another paddle before I buy a kayak, because the one I’m using is rather heavy and doubtless contributes to my fatigue on the water.

I needed a sprayskirt for this kayak, so I looked at the Gulfstream’s specs and determined that a Harmony Clearwater in size small should fit the cockpit. And mathematically, you’d think it would - 30¼” x 16½” certainly seems to be less than the maximum of 32″ x 18″ the small Clearwater should fit. I called around and found it at a store that was mostly on the way, so I had them hold it and I bought it after work. Only to find…it was way too small. Even with it pulled as much as I could, it wouldn’t quite make it; I had somebody who was still on the dock check if something was wrong, and he noted that it wasn’t that the bungee couldn’t do it…the actual skirt material was stretched to the maximum. So I’ll probably return that skirt this weekend and get the next size up.

Today I went paddling, specifically intending to find Row the Potomac. Unfortunately I’d forgotten to program the coordinates into my GPSr^*…but fortunately I had my Sidekick with me, so I took it out of my drybag and located the cache page. With the coordinates entered in, it was easy to find the correct island and get the cache. Okay, getting the cache was not so easy, as it involved scrambling around some rocks, but I managed to do it without getting wet anywhere above my knees. I had forgotten to bring a pen, so I took a picture as evidence of having been there. After returning to my boat, I paddled around for a while before heading back to the boathouse and loading the kayak onto the car. I looked very briefly for another cache that was nearby, but it was hot and I was tired so I gave up and I’ll get it next time.

We spent the whole morning inside, then when I went to get the mail I discovered it was a beautiful day outside. I received my second issue of Canoe and Kayak today - not wure why I got two different issues just days apart - and I realized I ought to take advantage of the lovely weather to wash the kayak. It’s a Current Designs Gulfstream, and it actually belongs to Woody, but he’s long-term loaning it to me. I had to wash it as quickly as I could because there’s a problem with our outside water connection and water was spraying everywhere from the connection as I was washing the boat. After the initial spray-off, I turned off the water while I cleaned the top, then turned it back on to rinse. It’s drying presently and then I’ll put the hatch covers back on. I’ll probably tackle the bottom tomorrow.

I really want my own boat…looking at another issue of C&K is not helping! I want something maybe about 14-15 feet long, and plastic, probably. A little day touring boat so I can keep up with the Pirates but still be able to haul it around myself.