Wednesday, August 09, 2006

The Anecdotal Life Part: 25

Well, I flunked lesson four on boating Sunday. Absolutely, too much coming at me with moving into my new house and three additional factors threw me off as we began to enter the Chesapeake. One, there were people watching me and one felt hostile. So all of a sudden it felt like a performance or test. Two, I became aware how much it mattered to me what the Captain thought and that he had decidedly cute legs. It is and was a very inconvenient time to realize I was attracted to that dude. How does that happen anyway? It's like backing into a hot stove. The third and perhaps most insurpassable problem is that I am so confoundedly right-brained. Of course, the Captain is the complete opposite and expects orders to be followed. With any luck maybe I'll hate him in a week and then I'll be able to think straight. Not that they were unkind. At all.
They even went so far as to board my boat and offered to take it out to see what it's difficulties were. Oh, and "it had em". We barely made our way into the channel when we smelled burning rubber, blue smoke started pouring out of the starboard engine and we had to reverse course immediately and head for the dock.
A couple of things weren't my fault that day and were a real shock. The clash of two cultures on the bay was so obvious and frightening. Crab pots and nets littered the surface , threatening any boats trying navigate around and through that incredible maze. Having known the watermen of Deal Island and now seeing the desires and passion of boaters, I wondered how it could all possibly be reconciled. Also, as if another factor could be thrown into the mix, some dam had been emptied out or broken through, I didn't catch which, and subsequently tons and tons of debris and driftwood had poured over and just under the surface. Apparently, when this first occurred the Chesapeake looked brown all the way across in that area. It was being plowed into huge piles on the opposite shore near Tolchester. I couldn't believe how deadly and enormous many of the pieces were. So the Captain concentrated totally on dodging all terrifying flotsam and jetsam coming at us. I don't know how he did it. I thanked God I had given up in a panic and he'd taken over. Whew! Just another day on the Chesapeake. I need to go back a few squares and do some thinking.
Copyright: August 9, 2006

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