The four of us were cuddled up on Skipper's bed after bath time and just before sleep time. Skipper looked at the world map taped to the wall behind his bed. "Show me the flag of Africa dad," said Skipper. As I started to explain that Africa was made up of 43? countries (we'd counted them a few days before) and had no single flag, Henry the three year old said, "Show me Pluto dad!"

There are streaks of days when I have much to say. For the last week, I have had nothing on my mind; sailing or otherwise. Yet, I promised myself that I would post at least once a week. I need to read. Reading inspires me. I will drop by the library at lunch time.

The other day I was making breakfast for Henry down in the kitchen. As I completed laying out his toast, cereal,and orange juice, he started saying "dray, dray, dray, dray!" as he became more and more upset. Skipper was upstairs with Sarah. "Calm down Henry," I said. I ran upstairs where I told Skipper what Henry was saying. Skipper shook his head as if his dad was biggest dummy he'd ever met. "Henry wants you to put his breakfast on a tray and bring it upstairs so he can watch cartoons while he eats."

Smarty Jones much the best. My heart will be with Smarty, but my wager will be somewhere else in three weeks at the Belmont. There are some who may think the Preakness was boring, but I felt it was a very interesting strategic race. In my view, Mike Smith on Lion Heart was clearly given instructions to stay wide and make Smarty Jones go to the inside. They may have guessed that Smarty had right eye vision problems, or simply wouldn't go inside. They guessed wrong. Otherwise, I think Lion Heart would have been second once again. It's too early to handicap the Belmont although you have to think Tapit might like a mile and a half. Looks like Smarty will be 1 to 5.

The Preakness. No value here.

I will not be wagering. This looks like a 2 horse race between Smarty Jones and Lion Heart. Probably Smarty on top. The Belmont is likely to be more interesting.

Returning to NotSailing. You will note that I have posted a photo of the Sophie Ruth taken not too long before I sold her. I'll add some more of her and the Josephine as I go along.

I wrote a few days ago about the phrase "cut and run." With a cruiser like myself there is almost never any reason to cut your anchor line. I remember my dad had to do it once when his anchor was fouled and wouldn't come up. I struggled a few times but always finally succeeded. The secret is to get right over the anchor and use the weight of the boat (rather than your back) do the work of getting it out of the mud or kelp or whatever.

For many years I relied on just one anchor and made faces at Captains who used two. Then one winter I went to the Virgin Islands. The wind blows all night long every night at 15 or more knots. The first night I didn't sleep. The next morning I noticed that practically everyone was using two anchors. I tried it the next day and slept fine. The secret is to do a quick turn to port after dropping the first off the starboard bow then drop the other to port. The two rodes should make a V with approximately the same length of line on each. You have that extra sense of security and your vessel barely sails at anchor.

The following summer I started using two anchors in New England and realized that I had never slept well while at anchor. Two anchors made a big difference in enjoyment. I've always used two simple Danforths and have never spent the extra money for high tensile.

Sophie Ruth 

While I'm mad at the President. We had a corruption trial of the Mayor of Providence a couple of years ago where a jury found him innocent of all the indictments relating to a particular action, but found him guilty of creating a "culture of corruption." He is now serving a six year sentence in Federal prison.

In a similar vein, I don't believe the President is guilty of a particular action which resulted in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, but I do believe he is guilty of creating a culture of arrogance and stupidity which led to the results we and the rest of the world now witness.

Sarah has been working, so I haven't been posting. This morning Skipper saw some pictures of the Iraqi prisoners on the front page of the Times. "What happened to them?" he said. Skipper just turned 4.

Rumsfeld taking full responsibility is not sufficient for me. The President should be taking responsibility. Rumsfeld's evasiveness in responding to Senator Reed's questions about softening up the prisoners means to me that someone higher up (either the President or VP)knew the nature of what had been authorized. GWB lied to us during the 2000 campaign, he's lied to us since, and will continue to lie into the future.

One of my unfavorite people, William Safire, had an interesting "On Language" column in the New York Times Magazine Sunday. He wrote about the phrase "cut and run" as it applied to the 'coaltition of the willing' Iraq strategy. He refers to a 1794 nautical guide which defines "cut and run" as "to cut the cable and make sail instantly, without waiting to weigh anchor." NotSailing should have known that this was the derivation, but did not.

You will note that I won some money today. Unfortunately, I netted $50 instead of $500. For budgetary reasons and pure boneheadedness I didn't have Lion Heart in the middle on the triple. I had him on both ends but not in the middle. What was I thinking.