Sarah and Chris take the plunge.

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Yippeeeee! Our friends Sarah and Chris, who used to live in Eugene but now lead exciting lives in LA, will be joining us for our first "shakedown" sail from the marina on Friday, June 15th. Since the positions of Captain, cook and crew are already filled, I'm afraid Sarah and Chris will get the "swabbie" title. At least they'll be together.

We'll take them out around 1 in the afternoon, when the wind picks up, so we can get a feel for the boat and the water. Having never sailed the boat (except for that little one-hour sea trial when we looked her over in April), I'm feeling pretty eager to get her out in the water. I'm wondering if this is the time for champagne. I'm wondering if this is the time to have the swabbies wash down the deck. I'm wondering if there's any better swabbie team to have on board and deciding it's not likely. These two are all glamour but they know just when to take off their heels and pick up the mop. Chris especially.

Chris works as a grip on film sets. This means he moves heavy things around and gets to set up scenes. He also gets to watch all the action, and recently this meant Gwyneth Paltrow in Japan. He says she didn't speak, which is a good thing because I hear her Japanese accent isn't very good.

When we saw Sarah in LA in April, she was on the verge of taking a new time-share real estate concept to a major buyer, and poised to pit one bidder against the other. The arrangement would leave her and a partner in charge of operations for a period of time, followed by a tidy buy-out. This girl has made all the right moves and it looks like (sadly) her migration from Eugene to LA to get her MBA was one of those "I can't believe I waited so long to do this" things.

I miss her here in Eugene, though, and can't wait to see her on the seas! Hurray for swabbies!

J

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Photos

Sarah and Chris
Eager, enthusiastic, beautiful. What more could we ask for from our swabbies?