Saturday Morning Sailing

Saturday mornings have so much promise, don't they? To me it is the beginning of a two day adventure. I spend it in a variety of ways, but my favorite thing to do is get up at the crack of dawn and go sailing.

I love sailboats, especially catamarans. There's something raw and free about them that you don't get with any other boat. My favorite is the 20' cat, which can hold 4 people easily. It's wonderful to start out with the sun just rising over the ocean, the morning is still damp and cool, and the only other people out are the ones that are die-hard fishermen or fellow sailing addicts.

It's hard work to get that sailboat off the trailer you brought it on. That's why most sailors need a partner (somone who doesn't chatter incessently and is willing to do some work).

But you get the cat on the beach, just above where the water is lapping at the shore. The only sound you hear are the shrill shrieks of gulls way above you, and the occasional car whizzing by. The next thing you have to do is raise the mast. It's hard work, but using some creative means and lots of elbow grease, you get it up there. You raise the sails, make sure all your lines (the ropes) are in order, and away you go.

The marvellous thing about sailing is that there is no pollution of any kind. You hear no motor, you smell no diesel fuel. All you experience is moving silently and swifly through the waves. You smell the pure, clean smell of saltwater and feel the cool wind whip by. Dolphins love the noise sailboats make under water, and they'll find you and start chasing you. As you slice through the water, they whiz along behind, sometimes to the side of you, sometimes frolicking about behind you.

Another friend of mine ('John') who loves catamarans got a great deal on one a couple of years ago. He knew there were potentially problems with it, because the price was so low. But sometimes you have to take these babies out on a test run before you know if anything is wrong. He loves silence on the water as I do, but was desperate enough to ask his friend to go with him one morning because he got the itch. His friend (' Sammy') is one of those annoying guys that can't stop talking and is never comfortable with silence, but Sammy was the only one available to go.

So John and Sammy went sailing. The wind was blowing hard and fast and they were going at a terrific speed. John wanted to see how fast he could get it (to make really sure he had put the boat through all it's paces). Sammy, meanwhile, couldn't shut up. He was talking about everything under the sun. John tired of it quickly, and repeatedly asked Sammy to shut up, but Sammy had diarhhea of the mouth.

Some dolphins picked up their trail and started darting about them. Sammy now had a new subject. "Look John," Sammy said excitedly, "Look! Dolphins!" He leaned out onto one of the catamaran's wings and laid on it, trailing his hands in the water. "Just look at the way they're following us, look at..." and suddenly he stopped talking. Startled, John turned around to see Sammy far behind, clinging to the broken wing. As John said, it served two purposes. He now knew what he was going to have to repair when the boat was in dry dock, and Sammy had finally shut up. He turned about and sailed leisurely back to retrieve Sammy. Sammy was much more subdued for the remainder of the day.

I love sailing.