Seafaring & More Nautical Nostalgia

I hadn't been out on a boat in ages and had never been on a sailboat, so I was really looking forward to going sailing with Matt and some of his friends from work a few Saturdays back. (Lord knows how I love the water!) The wind wasn't all that cooperative, but the weather was perfect and we had a fun trip. Well, most of us had a fun trip. Matt, for some reason, opted not to take Dramamine like many of us did and, um, regretted that decision later on the return leg of our outing. (Let's just say, if it had been the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, he would have been disqualified for a "reversal of fortune.") But he did at least enjoy himself up until that point.

While waiting around for our "ship's captain," Matt's co-worker, to arrive, I took a look around at all the boats moored in the marina and noticed that one thing certainly hasn't changed since I was last out on a boat - people's penchant for giving their boats god-awful names. Wish I could remember some of them, but it would seem that some sanity-preserving defense mechanism in my brain has suppressed that memory. Suffice it to say that they were of the "Sea-fari" or "Sea-duction" genre. (If you need to be reminded of how much I hate people's tendencies to give things twee names, please see the postscript to my December post.) The sailboat we took out was called "Vested Interest." Not bad as far as boat names go, but certainly not as cool as my brother's boat's name when I was a kid (on the right here - yes, yet another thing with which I've had to share my name.)

Once out to sea, I learned some of the particulars about sailing that I'd only understood superficially before - for example, when and why to let out the jib and to tack (see an illustration of tacking to the right here). And I also learned some seafaring lingo. For example, there aren't any "ropes" onboard, only "lines."

We also saw dolphins leaping and seals playing and hanging out on a marker. I didn't bring my camera, so I don't have my own picture to share, but it looked similar to what you see here at the left, only the seals were completely covering the lower level and the upper level of the marker, blocking the bell which is supposed to sound when the water is rough.

I hope to get out on the water in a boat again before the summer is out. With Matt's less-than-pleasant experience too much in the forefront of his mind right now, though, I'll settle for dragging him as far as the water's edge tomorrow. It's off to the beach! Yay! Happy weekend to all!