Taco Tuesday & Famous Kiwi Sailors

The crowd at Taco Tuesday after a few beers and vinos. They use old Corona beer bottles for salt and pepper shakers, which Jane is modeling for us, or sticking up her nose. Not really sure which.

In an effort to save pennies, I don't go out to eat very often. But, when I do, I have three criteria that have to be met: (1) food that's cheap as chips; (2) food that tastes so good that you want to overeat to the point that you wish you had worn pants with an elastic waistband; and (3) good company. Taco Tuesday at the local pub in Indiantown fits the bill. If you get there during happy hour, draft beer is only $1 and you can get tacos for $1 a piece, or, my personal favorite, tostadas for $1.50. I can walk out of there with a happy belly and a smile on my face for under $10.

Taco Tuesday is very popular with the cruisers at the marina and last night it seemed like everyone turned up for the cheap beer and food. Which made for some very good company and interesting stories. Like one woman who told us how she crashed her boat into a bridge and sunk it. She's still sailing today. Obviously, on a new boat. She seemed very chipper when she told us the story. I guess if you have a disaster like that you really only have two options: (1) learn to laugh at the whole experience and keep on sailing; or (2) swear off boating for the rest of your life, move to a landlocked part of the country and raise ostriches.

I spent some time talking with one couple who have a boat down the dock for me. The conversation went something like this:

"Sailing was my husband's idea."

"Oh yeah, mine too."  

"He decided he wanted to buy a boat, learn to sail and go cruising."

"Same here. Mine got into racing and crewing on boats, fell in love with the whole sailing thing and then started a brainwashing campaign to convince me that buying a boat and moving on board was a great idea." 

I then started telling them that once I realized how serious Scott was about all of this sailing and cruising stuff, I decided to take a sailing course when we moved to New Zealand. I was explaining how I liked the fact that it was a woman who taught the course and that the majority of the students were women. I think it helped make me more confident to have some knowledge and skills under my belt when Scott and I chartered our first boat together in the Bay of Islands. A much, much better idea than having Scott try to teach me to sail.

As I was talking about my sailing course, the guy mentioned that he had seen some great sailing videos by a famous Kiwi female sailor. Turns out it was the same woman who taught my course - Penny Whiting. How odd to be in a pub in Indiantown, Florida eating tostadas and talking to a guy from New England who knew who my sailing instructor was in New Zealand and had seen her on You Tube. He even talked about how she demonstrated tying a bowline knot. Oh, how I remember her teaching me that. I wasn't very good at it. She politely suggested I might want to do some more practice at home.

It took me back to those early days when this sailing thing was so foreign to me. And this is one of the reasons I love the fact that we have a blog. I can go back and read about earlier experiences, like taking Penny Whiting's sailing course. If you want to check it out, you can find it here. There's a picture of a bunny rabbit in the post. If you know anything about bowline knots, that might make sense to you.

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