One splash, and “them” turns into “us”
Issue 30 : May/Jun 2003
Today, we crossed over. We are no longer one of “them,” and now are part of the larger “us.” The “us” that have more fun because our boats are in the water. “Their” boats are still up on stands, stuck on the other side of that line between water and dry land.
This may not be a concept that our colleagues in California or along the southern coast can relate to, but I suspect that all along the Great Lakes and in other “temperate” portions of the country, sailors have a visceral understanding of just what a “spring launch” means here on the Chesapeake Bay. It is an uplifting and renewing moment that can transform a person.
For example, consider today. We were supposed to launch last week, but we needed to touch up the bottom paint below the new boot stripe (which we added after we painted the topsides). And we needed to put the registration numbers on the bow and the name on the stern and complete a few other little details that are easier to manage while the boat is up on stands rather than tossing on the briny deep. Maybe our water is not so briny and not so deep, but we’re sailors and thus are entitled to occasional wind-blown poetic license.
So as the sun set last night, I was rushing to get the numbers and name in place so we could be ready for this morning’s high tide. This, after a busy workday followed by the two-hour drive to the boat. And the old saw about “work hard, get tired, get stupid” applied in spades. The numbers went on fine, but as I struggled to align the name on the stern, the gusty wind caught a corner where I had peeled away the backing, and the carrier sheet folded over, sticking to itself and the beautiful vinyl letters. Twenty minutes of picking at the wreckage only made it worse, and I drove off in a foul temper, with the name in the dumpster, fueling my frustration by thinking of at least a dozen things I could have done to prevent the disaster.
But all that evaporated like dew on the rigging in the morning sun when the yard workers told me that they would put our boat in as soon as they splashed the one that spent the night in the boatlift. And by 9:15, I was helping adjust the docking lines in our new slip. It took all my resolve to resist casting off those lines and heading down the bay — especially once I got the motor running — but I did tarry to take care of a few minor maintenance items before heading back to my desk.
Perhaps this morning in May was made all the sweeter because this is the first time since we bought our boat four years ago that we have placed it in the water before the Fourth of July. We’ve done a lot of work on her in the off-seasons . . . work that has inevitably spilled over into the on-seasons. But this year we resolved to get in earlier. So even though the new traveler blocks haven’t been mounted on the cabintop and we never did install the “new” CD player we purchased three years ago, we’re in the water, and we’ll be sailing soon.
We’ve crossed over.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
