SAIL AWAY SAIL AWAY
There are some folks who will do anything to be in or on water. I am one of these people. this one is about being On the Water. Only, sometimes, In the Water, when I fall out...you'll see...
I'd start with the Canoe. I have written two stories about the Canoe, tho. Canoes are my favorite. particularly, fresh-water, quiet-water canoes. I'll take a few small rapids tho, if they come up. But not in my Old Town Canvass-On-Wood Canoe! No bust-ups on rocks for her!...so, that is one story...told already....
Then, there are the fishing boats, with my Dad - and their little out-board motors...scutting slowly up and down and around small lakes and large lakes in Wisconsin...fishing. fishing. fishing...I've written several pieces now, all about my love of fishing off those boats...
Here are the other craft I have attempted to ride upon, to be On Water: Sail Boats...Rafts...Kayaks - all on Fresh Water...not in the sea. The Sea is Large. My Crafts are Small. Just, never learned to...yet!
Sail Boats...the first sail boat I ever went out on was with my friend Pat from Nursing School She crewed for her Dad, who was a holy terror in the boat. I was only a guest, and he kept me hopping-to...It turned out this trip, my maiden voyage!, was a race off the coast of Lake Michigan near Evanston, Illinois. As a captain, he was a slave driver! he went berserk! Secure this! Tie that! No, this way! Starboard, I said! No, Port. The other Port, stupid! Watch the boom for Christ's sake! The Jib lines, Pat! The Jib!...I was kept mute with terror at this Insane Man! Then the boom swung around. I ducked, but it sent Pat overboard! I was busy throwing out the life line to her, while he came about, cursing his own daughter to hell and back...they lost the race of course...It was such a Fun Time!...
the second sail boat I ever went out upon was in Lake Michigan again. I had helped to refurbish it's fifteen foot self with two friends and my boyfriend, Rick. We had worked for weeks in Calumet Harbor dry dock, sanding and caulking and painting and varnishing and water-proofing in the hot summer sun. Fun, again! Finally we took her out...our friends were great sailors! I just sat and enjoyed. Rick fell asleep lying down, his fishing pole trawling in the lake! We swam off the side. Picnicked on the boat. it was a lovely day...I still have the pictures!
The boat was moved to Belmont Harbor. I didn't get to go on it again. It sunk! Rick and I had gone out to take a walk and look at it, and it wasn't there, it seemed!...but, there was a sort-of pole sticking up out of the water where it should have been! We watched our friend suit up in diving gear and dive into the boat with a big tire and air. He blew up the bulbous tire in the hold, and up floated the boat! He had a friend tow it back to Calumet. Rick and I never saw it again. it was a bust!
Third time...friend of a friend. a doctor. needed help to get his boat refurbished for "the season". I volunteered! Anything, to get on a sail boat again! I worked my fingers to the bone sanding and varnishing and scrubbing decks and so on...for this effort, I got one, yes one, sail boat ride: picture it: Lake Michigan. Beautiful Day. Beautiful Boat. loving refurbished by Moi! Delicious Food. Wine! Great Sailing! Four of the Most Boring People I Had Ever Been With In My Whole Life Thus Far!....the gods of the Lake were being mean, mean, mean, I tell you! I couldn't see ever going out with these folks again. Strike Three for Lake Michigan! I gave up for the time being!
Fast Forward to Lake Merritt, Oakland California...it is years and years later. I am a single parent with three kids. I decide, logically, that it is time to take Sailing Lessons! I Did take Sailing Lessons, on this sweet little Bird Sanctuary Lake in the middle of the city...Sun Fish was the craft! Capsizing was my Game! yes. I was splended at going overboard. All I had to do was tack and come about. Tip over. and wait to be up righted. clammer back on board. try again! Finally, I could go back and forth across the lake without injuring myself or anyone else or the poor Sun Fish! I was ready to sail! Ah....but who to sail with, who o who?
I was working at Children's Hospital in Oakland. One of the nurses I made friends with: her name was Pat, too, by the way...an Omen! told me her live-in boy friend was building a ferro cement twenty-four-foot sail boat in their back yard. I was excited! I came over to see it, and fell in love with it's about three-fourths-completed self! A Boat to work on! Her boy friend and his (married) cute carpenter friend were working on the cabin. Could I help? Sure! I could punch out all the wooden plugs and plug, sand, and varnish every plugged screw and nail hole in the place! I got right to work...once a week I'd walk over - they lived about a mile away from us - and work and work in the cabin. The guys and I were having fun working together!
But! Unbeknownst to me, they were both falling in love with me, (I'm not kidding here!), and were fighting about who would get to go out with me! They just didn't bother to talk with me about all this, no, not at all! Not One Sign! I got to learn about all this from Pat, who came over to my house and accused me of stealing her boyfriend! I told her in no uncertain terms that I did not know What In The Blazes she was talking about! Finally she believed me and calmed down. I told her to deal with these two Traitors and come back and tell me about their executions, so I could get back to work on the boat...I figured, tho, that working on the boat again was probably going to be a no-go...again! This boat business was getting to me!
Later that week she came back and gave me a marigold plant as a peace offering. They were going to go into counselling and stuff. No boat mentioned...a few weeks later she called and said she was moving out. They were breaking up...another few weeks...he called and asked me to come back and work on the boat. OK, I said. But no hanky-panky!...another few weeks...carpenter mad, after trying to put the make on me. abandons the boat, the ex-boyfriend, and me and goes home to the wife and kids...another few weeks...hanky panky...the ex-boyfriend and I are going together. The boat is still far from finished. Boat-building takes So Much Time and Money, too!
...a few months go by... boat is finished! Boat is launched! I get one wonderful run in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay! One glorious sailing day!...some repairs needed. Boat dry-docked again...a few months later: ex-boyfriend becomes an ex-ex-boyfriend...I just don't like him that much...but I loved the boat...too bad, lady! The Boat goes with the Guy!
A couple of years later, we try again...he is living at the Berkeley Marina on the Boat...nope. still love the Boat. still don't love him...
We try once more. He's in Alameda Canal Zone now...months later. Still no go...Goodbye, Boat! Her name was The Solice...hmmmmmmm.
Years pass...I only get one more sailboat ride on the Bay, a wonderful day with my friend Doris and her son and his wife. he wears spiffy Captains gear, and is a great sailor! So is my friend! I get to steer a little. yipeee! ...The End....no more sails...yet...
Now, on to Kayaks...I went on several inflatable kayak trips into Tamales (home of lots of little biting sharks) Bay with students on field trips with the School I was working at as a teacher. It was the mid-nineties: time of great adventures in my life! I really enjoyed kayaking with kids. Kids wanted me to go with them, since I tended to win all the little races we had with my sturdy little paddlers! So much fun!
Years before, as a single mother, I had spent a couple of times on the Kern and on the Eel Rivers in the north, rafting the supply raft with kayakers and my friend Tim. He decided to get me into a kayak to try it out. Seeing I had never learned to Eskimo-roll to save myself in case I went over, this was a really dumb idea. But I was so tempted! I spent quite a bit of a long run down-river upside down in short order. I drifted into an eddy, and was turned over by my so-called-friends! - who were pretty sure I was dead! Fortunately, I am comfortable in Water. I had just opened my eyes and looked around and pushed off rocks, while, of course, holding my breath.
... it is very beautiful underwater in a river...the colors. the fish. the movement of the water around the rocks. It is good to be upright tho. very good....
I watched Tim kayak in the ocean waves...looked like fun...looked not...too hard....but no. I don't mind throwing my body into waves. I have control over my body in water, more than less...but kayaks? They are tricky little devils!
On to rafts! Rafts!...I am a Paddler! I have big, strong-woman arms! I can paddle for hours and hours cheerfully! Even if I do lose my contact lenses from going over in a kayak on the trip and opening my eyes underwater! Even if my other paddlers are horrible and complaining! I don't care! I am a paddler! I was usually placed in the bow, where I could push off rocks, and read the water...when I could see, that is... my early runs were all on the supply rafts for my kayaking friends. Except for grueling portages...Much fun!
But the best fun was the white-water rafting on the American River...I think it was the south fork, but I can't recall...
All my trips on the American were with the school in Orinda, where I taught Social Studies and was the School Nurse for thirteen years. I went on eight years of these white-water adventures, and they were all very, very hard and very, very fun! We constantly were lucky with guides...I always paddled in the supply/emergency raft with the kids who were considered whimps. The best rafting guides were always, to a man, in that raft, and I learned a Lot from them! They inevitably took the kids and me down the worst of the run choices, to give the kids a thrill, since we were the most stable of the rafts, and they were the best at the stern! All the other kids were so jealous! I loved watching their faces as we shot by, me and the so-called-losers-kids, who were now the winners!
We had a few accidents with the kids, but we always went with Outfits that knew the water well, and risked not one kid or one raft. If the water was too low, or too high, or the wind wasn't right, or the clouds were wrong...whatever. they'd cancel. So, the kids were always safe...It was always, well, you guessed it! Lots of Fun!
For now, I think it will be All Canoe. Me and Den and Canoe...all the way...all the rivers, and lakes, and ponds that we can...that wil certainly be more, much more, than enough....
So, I have been ON the Water.
In the Water is better.
Still...
On the Water...a beautiful day. clouds sailing across the sky.
skimming on top of the ripples like an osprey on the wind...
free as that bird!
That is a good day. A day well spent...
Sail away...
Sail away....
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