I think I like boats
My childhood chum George was very boat-centric and friends of his naturally spent a good bit of time on boats.
His Hobie 16
In the summer, we would spend lazy afternoons (as if there is any other type of summer afternoon) cruising around Lake Julian. Lake Julian never had a lot of wind and was constantly warm as it was part of the power plant meaning you could go sailing very late into the autumn without a wet suit or fur coat.
So, we’d spend afternoons meandering around the lake waiting for the short bursts of wind. Sometimes we’d flip the boat just for fun. Sometimes we’d sit in the middle of the lake and drink beer.
It was a good little sailboat.
His Brother’s Fishing Boat
In high school, instead of spending spring break at some beach with bathing-suited girls, we went to visit George’s older brother who lived near Charleston on a boat (he did this instead of living in student housing while he was in medical school). The boat wasn’t huge, but slept the 3-4 of us without much issue. It sometimes smelled a bit funny.
During the day we’d go to the beach or take the boat out and water-ski behind it (big boat = big wake). In the evenings, we often spent many beer filled hours attempting to play trivial pursuit underneath one of those yellow bug lightbulbs – that was tricky as it was difficult to tell the yellow from the pink from the orange.
One year, our pal Mike dropped his wallet overboard. He had a billion dollars in change in it and the wallet sank like a stone. Or, sank like a wallet that a had a billion dollars in change in it.
We found a guy on the dock who had scuba gear and he offered to help us out – although our catch was that if he couldn’t find the wallet then Mike couldn’t pay him. After almost a half hour the wallet was finally found but it had been tricky because the currents had swept it away from the boat as it was descending.
I think that was our only crisis apart from the year with the rotted onions that stunk up the refrigerator.
By far the best part of spending a week or so on a boat is the sleeping part. Being lightly rocked as you sleep, at least for me, was very calming. I slept like a big fat baby (that was being rocked).
The only drawback about his brother’s fishing boat? Teenage girls do not hang out on boat docks.
