I hope you had a wonderful summer sailing. I did but, of course, there can never be enough of it to satisfy me. I did have I especially memorable cruise that I’d like to share with you.
In August, I went out sailing with Bill. But this time it was a little different. I wanted to sail. He was willing but not really able. I found that out, and so did he, when we got out there. So instead of my being the crew, I was the captain, crew and galley slave! Yes. I found myself out there, in charge, of everything. He ended up below, sick-yuck. And he slept half the way out and all the way in. And I sailed the boat.
I solved the galley slave problem right away. I drank water but did not eat anything. I had already put up the sails by myself. I wanted to practice. And I was just fine while the boat was sailing. Then all of a sudden I realized he was below, snoring like a freight train I might add! So, I sailed out for a while but there really wasn’t any wind.
I looked at the clock. A Wednesday night; uh oh, the summer races of SSSS! I went up and took the jib down and secured it. Then I went back and sat down. I put all the stuff together to take down the main. I took it down and secured it also. I started the motor and sat down again. No SSSS boats on the horizon yet. Thank goodness.
I started the trip in to the slip. Still no Bill. Just the same old freight train snoring. Next, it was time for the bow and stern lines to go in place. So I did that too. I got closer in and then put out the bumpers. The trip continued. The next big step was going to be putting the boat in the slip alone. I had watched him do that many times but it’s still different when you do it yourself and you do it alone. But, Lady Luck was on my side and before that happened. Bill woke up and he was able to go ashore with the lines. He could not have picked a better time to wake up. And you, SSSS racers, could not have picked a better Wednesday night to be done with the races. So I did not have to get in between those boats!
The moral of the story is this: for any of you who think you will never have to sail the boat alone, you might be wrong. There may come a day when you have to. It happened to me. I’m glad I was paying a little bit of attention on all my past trips. And there has never been anything else like this trip to help me realize that a boat is a responsibility. Now I understand why there has to be a captain and crew. And sometimes the crew becomes the captain temporarily.
Debbie Behre, Wave Walker