Three Days Napeagueing

There were several reasons for me to have Napeague on the brain last week:

-My dinged knee would fair better on flatter water than in Meschutt/Iron Pier/West Meadow conditions,

-Wilson had acquired a bunch of exotic foiling gear,

-A reprise of a wonderful session with Wilson and David last October was past due.

So with knee brace and loaded van I was Peaguebound.

Friday afternoon winds were west and moderate…me on the 6.2, Wilson rigged a bit bigger, and we were on Reach and Jibe patrol. Nothing fancy, just a good lead in to the weekend. My bad knee didn’t like having its attendant foot in the front strap much, so I babied it.   Nothing like trying to coddle an injury while committing to a jibe to induce mediocrity, but still it was fun to be out there on flat and friendly water.

Saturday winds were southerly and light, but to a bunch of ABKers it was catnip.   Wilson took out a foil and had his longest foiling reach yet…I’d guestimate it at 75 yards fully elevated.   I was out on the 6.2 and managed to pump to a plane a few times, jibe once, otherwise it was mostly helitacks and pivot jibes. David, Lili and Dana were also out for various stretches doing the nonplaning thing.   Followed by gin and tonics and a fine dinner, it was a good day of sailing.

Sunday it nuked.   Eyeballing it I thought a 4.7 was the call, and despite Wilson and David's local advice to rig smaller I went out with too much sail. After two runs rigged down to 4.2, where I was again lit to overpowered (note to self: always defer to local knowledge!) David somehow made a 4.4 work, while Wilson took a few runs and thought better of it.   It wasn’t just the wind (3.7 would probably have been perfect)…there were uncharacteristically sets of waves coming into the beach. If you hit them right on port they made for nice jumps, but generally speaking beach break is not what Napeague is known for!

It was punishing but good fun…I bagged it early for my knee, and David wanted to return the harness he borrowed from Lili (on account of she said she’d kill him if he left with it.) Top:  Michael outbound.  Middle:  David inbound.   Bottom:  We shall live to sail another day (Lili got her harness back).  Photos by Wilson.

Comments

[The mighty Larry Hoff]

For four years, law school has beaten into me that sentence grammar and punctuation marks matter. There is no excuse for using punctuation incorrectly.

Imagine my chagrin when, in the middle of enjoying "Three Days Napeagueing," I encountered a possessive personal pronoun using an apostrophe! It's unthinkable!

I realize that English personal pronouns are irregular. But they never use an apostrophe to form the possessive. The only time a personal pronoun should be followed by an apostrophe is as part of a contraction, e.g. with certain forms of the English verb "to have" or the (highly irregular) English verb "to be."

The singular English personal pronouns are: I, you, he, she, and it.

The plural English personal pronouns are: we, you, and they.

Consider the following present-tense sentences that apply these personal pronouns to a sentence of the form:

[nominative personal pronoun] [the verb to have] "demonstrated that" [nominative personal pronoun] [the verb to be] [nominative possessive personal pronoun] "grammar skills are" [objective possessive personal pronoun].

I've demonstrated that I'm sure my grammar skills are mine.
You've demonstrated that you're sure your grammar skills are yours.
He's demonstrated that he's sure his grammar skills are his.
She's demonstrated that she's sure that her grammar skills are hers.
It's demonstrated that it's sure its grammar skills are its.
We've demonstrated that we're sure our grammar skills are ours.
You've demonstrated that you're sure your grammar skills are yours.
They've demonstrated that they're sure their grammar skills are theirs.

The only apostrophes are in contractions. Apostrophes are not used to form possessives.

Does that help? And, yes, I see the ambiguity raised by the fact that the singular and plural of "you" are indistinguishable. If the verb "to be" were more sensibly conjugated, the singular version might be the following:

You've demonstrated that you's sure your grammar skills are yours.

But that's not the way it is.

[Michael]

First of all the once Mighty Larry Hoff don't sail 'round here no more, so who cares? :)

Secondly of all, let us love that you go right past "Napeagueing". Of course all regular readers of the Peconic Puffin are accustomed (ie acclimated to the pain) of my coined words.

Thirdly I'm not sure of what you are taking offense. Was it "ABK'ers"? That looked odd when I reviewed it just now, so I changed it, but it might have been fine. And now I've fixed "it's". Blah blah blah. You were more fun when you were teaching me to helitack.