Polo

Have you ever watched a Polo game? Its actually really exciting... The horses thunder past and every once in a while someone pulls out a sword and cuts someone's head off. The frisbee game that I just started going to has polo afterwards, so it was nice to watch that.
Also, in exciting news, I got run into by another boat yesterday. I had just anchored out in Marina Del Rey and was thinking about going ashore when I heard this terrible crunching and awful shaking, and I scampered up on deck to investigate. A big Catalina 38 had run into me, and had caught on one of my shrouds (the cables that hold the mast from tipping over) and that had stopped the boat. My anchor held solid, and didn't slide at all, so I ended up taking a lot of the force of the boat. The shroud was torn in half, despite my near conviction (earlier) that since the cables and swages were so old, the cable would just pull out of the swage (the end of the cable) and that would be that. But it didn't. In fact the swage is stronger than the cable. And since the cable is strong, I am pleased with the shape my rigging is in, despite its age. Anyways, it tore one of the cables up completely, and broke another one, and now I have to replace them. The guy who ran into me was quite considerate and gave me his number, and I'm working out how to get the replacement cables on and who to do them, and then I'll go get it done. I expect it to be around $400 or $500, but hopefully not any more than that. West Marine of course priced the job at $1050. They always are outrageous. The boat is not Oceanworthy now, but I think I could sail her around a little bit, but I would want to be careful. Right now I tied up a couple lines in the mast to hold things up.
There was also a hole poked in the deck, and some other scratchings. Oh, the trials my poor Altair is going through.
Note, however, that the problems she faces are almost solely caused by rocks, or boats, and not by waves or by wind. So the safest place still remains out in the middle of the ocean.