A warm summer day

All these bitter cold days have me thinking about the warm days of summer. Now I enjoy the changing of the seasons with the different colors and temperatures but this has been just a bit extreme. Maybe it is that I'm getting older and the cold bothers me more, after all, I am originally from New York. New Yorkers my age are thinking about heading south, if they haven't already done so. Is this an innate pull I have no control over? Mom and Dad went there years ago. My sister lives there now. One brother is down there. I am just north of the mason-dixon line so am fairly close. Truth is I don't have any plans to go any further south and this is just a phase brought on by this cold.

As I was thinking about the warm summer days my memory drifted back to Long Island. I was thinking about how I would go down to the bay for a dip or maybe do some clamming. That bay was surely a comfort on those hot summer days. The sand and the salt are definitely a tonic for the mind and body. The sun glistening off the water and a cool breeze on the beach goes a long way. Lying on a towel with that warm sand caressing you, ahh. Now that is refreshing ! This cold is just bracing.

The memory of sailing on the bay entered my thoughts as well. Growing up on Long Island ,surrounded by water, we just naturally had boats. Row boats, skiffs and dingys. Big boats and small boats. They were mostly power boats though, only the well to do had true sail boats. Interesting fact is it costs more to own and operate a sail boat than it does a regular boat. Tear a sail and wreck some rigging and you know about it quick. As a result I had no experience with sail boats. They did teach sailing at the summer camps but I never went to one of those, again, for the well to do folks.

There was a summer when someone started a rental service with those Sunfish sailboats. If I remember correctly it was down to an area called Maidstone. Seems like it cost about fifteen dollars to rent a boat for a couple hours. The details of the transaction are blurred over time but not the memory of the voyage. My best friend and I decided to rent one of those tiny sailboats. Neither of us knew anything about sailing but it only has one sail, how hard can it be ? We paid the man and got aboard. The fellow gave us a shove heading us offshore. We were underway. We raised the sail and headed out. The breeze was blowing out and so we moved along easily enough until we thought we would make a turn. I shifted that rudder to the left and tried to come about, as the saying goes. It didn't seem to be working very well though, that is when my friend said, I wonder what this board is for ? Yup, it is the centerboard and we hadn't put it in place. Well, that explained why we almost tipped over on our side and why we couldn't turn. Sliding that centerboard into the slot the boat straightened up and we were underway again. We got this now. 

We were headed out of the harbor and getting a good distance from Maidstone. It was decided we should turn around and start back. Ok, centerboard in place, a good amount of speed, this should be easy. Shouting to my friend, we are coming about, I swung the rudder sharply. That little sailboat responded immediately. A sharp list to the starboard and the sail spinning about. The boom caught my friend flush and overboard he went ! Well, I just straighten that boat up and had the sail back under control. I wasn't exactly sailing in the opposite direction but was moving off at a good clip. My friend is hollering at me to come back and get him. It was at this point I realized the value of " tacking " skills. Suffice to say it took a good while before I got back to him. In hindsight I should have just lowered the sail and let him swim over. 

It was a fun day on the water. It was the only time we went sailing. It was the only time I have sailed a boat. After that we rowed or used the outboard motor. It is a pretty sad commentary for an island boy. I will say I enjoyed it and when we were actually under sail and moving it was very nice, relaxing even. It is the turns that are tricky and that dang wind just doesn't blow the right direction when you need it to. No wonder it took Columbus so long to get here.