Me: I think the best thing for you, me, and public at large would be if you could just shoot me, right now, with a tranquilizer gun.

Kath: I totally and wholeheartedly agree!

We said we would leave early and take our time, but this is getting silly. Without knowing how much time to allot to the canals and not knowing exactly how enticing canal towns would be, we seem to have over-shot the mark on this taking our time business. Our mast won’t reach Hop-O-Nose marina until sometime next week, so we are forced to poke our way down the canals. And I’m growing increasingly poor at sitting on my hands.

Each of the canal towns we pass through or stop at is charming enough – for about an hour. None are holding my interest. And the longer I’m without a mast and the potential for sailing, it seems, the less interested I am in wandering around in a historic lock chamber or fort. And my restlessness is made worse by a sore knee.

I must have banged it a day or so before we left our dock. Up until yesterday, it was growing more painful and less useful. We bought a brace in Rochester and I babied it for several days. It’s definitely on the mend now so I’m able to do a bit of walking again. But not enough to slake the restlessness.

Patience is, of course, one of the most important traits of a good sailor. There will be many times to come when we are stuck in some sub-optimal place or another, waiting for a weather window that will take us to the best place ever. I’m confident that my impatience will not be putting us in harms way anytime soon. However, right now, we are just in these little canals that don’t really demand the same degree of respect, weather-wise. So my impatience is having a field day!

Time to break out some varnish and a podcast.