From the desk of: Cathy Coloff
Subject: Come sail away with IT Radix!
I’ve been sailing on and off for most of my life. My family first started sailing when I was 6 or so and living in North Carolina. We had a small daysailer that we took out on a local lake. I’m not sure how my Dad stumbled upon sailing having grown up land-locked in Montana, but sailing turned out to become our family’s equivalent of “Jersey shore” weekend trips. There were times where I was happy to trek to the lake and later the Pamlico Sound area for a weekend of sailing, and other times I dreaded it.
For a kid, sailing can be kinda boring…especially when the winds are poor, it’s blistering hot, or you can’t swim because there are too many stinging jellyfish in the water. Those were the times when I wanted to be on a speedboat and water skiing—skipping across the waves feeling the water spray on my face. While I never really got to do that, we did have some great family trips in our larger sailboat, essentially camping on water along the NC coast. We even had our fair share of memorable sails with strong winds or stormy weather crossings. As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to appreciate the gentle breezes, the sounds of the water lapping against the hull of the boat, heeling hard to left or right and sometimes just drifting along trying to harness the wind in our sails.
What does any of this have to do with technology? Very little but sailing with my family is part of what made me who I am. So, as you’re out and about this summer doing things with friends and family, I challenge you to think about what you’re doing, whether it’s sailing, swimming, mountain biking (or none of these at all) and enjoy everything life has to offer.
First published in our July 2019 IT Radix Resource newsletter
