Weather Helmed

We are getting ready to go on this big sailing trip, you know, and two of the most common questions people ask us are:

– Is it safe?

– Are you scared?

And – yes it is safe, and no I’m NOT scared of going sailing – for lots of reasons I won’t go into here – but I’m REALLY not scared because it cannot be anymore scary than what I go through everyday here in SF.  Right now I live in one of the most earthquake-prone places in the world and everyday I cross under the bay twice and I spend more than 8hrs of my day surrounded by huge, tall concrete structures that are more or less sitting on a pile of sand… and everyday, I get on BART, surrounded by crazies – I’ve sat by two definite weirdos just last week – like the one today who was screaming at people that he was clean-and-sober-and-unemployed-and-couldn’t-you-just -spare-some-change as he is swinging his huge black bag around and becoming more and more agitated by the second and who I gave a dollar to just because I’m thinking – for all I know he’s got a knife or a gun in his bag and is going to freak out in a minute and if he turns on me, at least I can say, “Dude! I gave you a dollar! No one else gave you anything, but I gave you a dollar!”  and you think maybe I’m a little paranoid or whatever, but you know what – over the last month, some crazy man on MUNI just up and stabbed four random people as they were riding the train.  And, to top it off, everyday I get off BART and walk through a couple of unlit parking lots at a super ghetto station in a super ghetto area, constantly looking over my shoulder.

It is the nature of the beast – large cities have higher crime rates and SF in particular must be top o’the charts for wackos.  And yes I know I am prone to an overactive imagination, but I cannot say I will be sorry to leave this city for the SAFETY of our little boat  (yes, with its own risks, I know) and the unknowns of the great wide ocean.