Dad's day 06
2006-06-19

Even though it�s still the middle of June, yesterday was one of those middle of July days, hazy, hot and sticky. I spent all day Saturday doing chores and running around doing unpleasant stuff so Sunday was my day and I was going to sail come hell (bad) or high water (good).

I never know who is going to show up on a Sunday. Being Fathers Day, I figured the pickings would be small, probably just M.E. and I and that�s OK. Some of our best sails have been just us. I was running a bit late and when I cruised into the parking lot I ran into Bobby, his wife Donna and their two kids all ready to go sailing. Martin and Maria and Dianne showed up right after, we�d have a full boat. That�s fun too�

I backed the boat out of the slip with a bit of apprehension. The traffic was already getting heave and I have to back out right into the main channel of our little slice of life. Fortunately the boats parted at just the right time and we were on our way. The wind started out light, too light and just a little bit off from southwest. I couldn�t fetch the middle ground can like I usually do. On top of that the entire gold chain Cranston Navy people seemed to be out kicking up wakes and making a general pain it the butt of themselves. Blah�

But the day was perfect and it was nice on the water. You play the hand you are dealt and we tacked the boat towards the shallows off Green River and then back out to the lighthouse. We were off a lee shore with lots of rocks and I�m pointing pretty high to stay off them. These folks in a Catalina with the jib half trimmed in is ignoring the rocks and falling down on us at a bit of an alarming rate. I�m not sure what he wanted me to do, hit the rocks, tack though him, somehow magically disappear? What ever he expected didn�t happen, I stayed my course and we sailed though his lee close enough that I could have dumped what remained of my drink on his rail. They we�re happy, I wasn�t happy, but we cleared the dock at the point by way too close of a distance and I finally was able to unwind.

We cracked off the jib, put on some good tunes and reached off to the Bristol shore. I traded my beer for a glass of grapes, and the traffic went the way of the idiot, far, far away. I grabbed a comfy seat and let a ten year old girl drive my 18,000 pounds of boat and watched the world go by. Life in the slow lane. Every once in a while I�d look over at the kid driving and I could see that smile, the one I get when things are in balance. And they were� It was hazy enough that neither Providence nor Newport was visible, but both shores in the upper bay were. The wind piped up to a steady 12 and we moved smartly at 6+ knots under just the number 2. We talked about unimportant stuff, managed to soak the people on the foredeck (sorry Maria) and just enjoyed the beautiful day.

The park on the Bristol side was full of cars and people and kites. We remarked that there was probably a lot of chrico and linguisa cooking on the grills. It was so nice that we all voted to take another swing back to the lighthouse and then back again. I took the wheel as we finally headed back into our home part of the bay and all the problems of life were lost somewhere in the wake.

Previous - Next