Despite that disastrous sailing adventure, I agreed to go sailing again, this time with my husband as the Captain. I had gotten beginning sailing lessons at our previous duty station, Newport, RI, mainly because Nathan asked me to. Then in San Diego, I took more sailing classes, attaining certification to take out the Navy's recreational, rental fleet boats on an overnight trip. But I never reached a point where I felt comfortable enough to go out by myself or as Captain. We did rent a boat from the Navy Rec center a couple of times and sail about the San Diego Bay. After leaving San Diego in 2002, there followed five years of moving around, four duty stations in the five years. Even with one of them being Key West, we did not sail again (other than Nathan crewing on a race boat a couple of times). Finally, in 2007, we landed in Washington D.C., a short 45 minutes to the gorgeous, Chesapeake Bay. Despite Nathan's busy work schedule, we decided to buy a sailboat and find out if this whole sailing thing was something for us to pursue.
We browsed craigslist, drove out to the Bay a few times to look at boats, and found the boat for us by a complete accident. We'd gone out to a fancy marina to take a look at a former Annapolis Sailing School boat. That boat was definitely not the boat for us, and as we walked dejectedly back down the dock, staring at all the boats in the marina, our beauty came into view. A 27' Catalina, old (1976), neglected, with a very faded, almost illegible, "For Sale" sign hanging in a corner of the hatchboards. The owner was extremely surprised to hear from us as he'd moved to Canada. I suppose he thought the boat would never sell, and it seemed like he might have even forgotten he owned it. One visit for a look at the interior led us to schedule a sea trial, and in short order, we were the excited and proud owners of Mafalda. Named after an Argentinian cartoon by a prior owner (who actually then owned Mafalda II in the same marina to which we moved the original Mafalda), we found the name cute and unique, so we decided to keep it for awhile. We weren't sure just how much sailing vs. work we'd have, so we moved Mafalda to Herrington Harbour South, one of the fanciest marinas on the Chesapeake Bay. With a swimming pool, restaurant and bar, beach, lush grounds, and proximity to a nice, little beach town, I had lots of amenities...just in case I still wasn't keen on sailing.
We browsed craigslist, drove out to the Bay a few times to look at boats, and found the boat for us by a complete accident. We'd gone out to a fancy marina to take a look at a former Annapolis Sailing School boat. That boat was definitely not the boat for us, and as we walked dejectedly back down the dock, staring at all the boats in the marina, our beauty came into view. A 27' Catalina, old (1976), neglected, with a very faded, almost illegible, "For Sale" sign hanging in a corner of the hatchboards. The owner was extremely surprised to hear from us as he'd moved to Canada. I suppose he thought the boat would never sell, and it seemed like he might have even forgotten he owned it. One visit for a look at the interior led us to schedule a sea trial, and in short order, we were the excited and proud owners of Mafalda. Named after an Argentinian cartoon by a prior owner (who actually then owned Mafalda II in the same marina to which we moved the original Mafalda), we found the name cute and unique, so we decided to keep it for awhile. We weren't sure just how much sailing vs. work we'd have, so we moved Mafalda to Herrington Harbour South, one of the fanciest marinas on the Chesapeake Bay. With a swimming pool, restaurant and bar, beach, lush grounds, and proximity to a nice, little beach town, I had lots of amenities...just in case I still wasn't keen on sailing.
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