After Thumper and Magellan and The Nearly Perfect Wife and I ate a breakfast of pancakes and at least one engine-mount impersonating a biscuit, we walked out of the joint and saw this...Magellan, of course, said, "If we leave now we can get back before dark."
My friend, Magellan, is an intrepid sailor. He likes the rail down and water washing along the side decks like the log ride at Six Flags. But his enthusiasm occasionally suffers blind spots where it bleeds off into something normal folks call a death wish. I replied,"Look here: anything coming from that quarter, with that amount of purple in it, is going to have some big wind in it, too. I say we wait for that to pass." Thumper and The Nearly Perfect Wife agreed. Magellan suffered the mutiny in silent dignity.
Fifteen minutes later, with all of us on our respective vessels, the wind came down like a Rider of the Apocalypse. The VHF radio was a constant crackle of wild calls from boaters caught in 50-60 knot winds. The Coast Guard replies had the resigned tone of men who knew they must choose between the merely panicked and those in real danger. Houdini and The Nearly Perfect Wife and I rode it out at dockside--though even tied-off we had a good 10-degree heel and a pelting rain.
posted by The Captain @ 8:08 PM
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