Many years ago, while I was still single,I was on vacation staying in a villa on the Mediterranean coast of Spain with a group of young people, six girls and two guys, a good mix. We had at the villa a sailboat called a sailskiff, if my memory serves me correctly. This was quite the worst sailboat I have ever sailed. It was rather like a 17 or 18 feet long surfboard except that the hull was not actually a board, but a shallow plywood box about 6 inches deep at the center and 36 inches wide. It had a large sail area and a tiny plywood keel. The deck was a flat board. The helmsman sat at the stern with legs facing forward along the deck and feet tucked under canvas straps running fore and aft along the outsides of the deck. The passenger sat back to the mast with legs trailing rearward along the deck and feet tucked under the same straps.
This boat was top heavy in the extreme and, in a calm sea with very little wind was virtually unmaneuverable. This was the condition on the day in question. It was the first morning of the vacationing days n and we all went to the beach and took the boat with us. I carried the boat down to the waters edge with Jim, the other guy, and we figured out how to rig the boat. Then I found out that none of the others had ever sailed before. So, I asked who wanted to come on the maiden voyage. Sally, a little blonde, volunteered. Brave girl, I thought to myself.
Sally was a cute little girl from the country, definitely not a city girl. She was quite shy and reserved and, I am sure, very easily shocked by many things. One thing you could not miss about Sally was that she was extremely well endowed, and this fact plays a part in the story. So, this morning, I got Sally installed aft the mast, pushed the boat out, jumped on and off we went. One thing that is extremely important on this boat is balance. Both crew must lean in the same direction at the same time to maintain balance, particularly during turns. Things went fine initially but I noticed that Sally was very nervous and tended not to lean at all whatever the boat was doing, she just hung on without moving. We went through a few turns between tacks and all was fine. Then a bit of wind got up and we were hit with a few mild puffs. During one turn, we got hit by a slightly bigger puff and, I am not sure what happened to Sally but one of her feet came out from under the straps and, while still turning, she slid into the water. The sudden change in balance caused the next wind gust to capsize us. The boat was lying on the starboard side with the sail well in the water. I was by the rudder and Sally was about 20 feet away to starboard. So, once I had established she was OK, I asked her to go to the masthead and lift the mast slightly out of the water to empty some of the water .out of the sail. Then, I would tread on the keel to right the boat. I told Sally to hold the masthead with both hands and keep it above the water and then, when I said "go", to let it go but be careful to stay away from it as it went up. I stepped on the keel and said "go" and the boat righted itself. I grabbed the mast as it became vertical to stop the boat rolling the other way. Everything seemed OK so I shouted "well done" to Sally. Just then, I heard a sort of squeal come from her direction, so I looked over at her and she was pointing to the sail. So, I looked up and instead of seeing the white triangle of the burgee above the sail, there was something else up there. It was green and orange and definitely not triangular. Then I realized that flying proudly at the masthead was Sally's bra. She had obviously not withdrawn her endowment before the crash, so to speak.
So, we had to lay the boat down again to retrieve the bra. I wanted to lay it down on the starboard side, as before, so I moved to the starboard side. Then Sally shouted " don't you come over here, stay on your side of the boat!", as she tried to cover herself. Anyway, she got her bra back and proceeded to try and put it back on. Then, she discovered the attachment hardware was damaged. So, I applied for and received permission to aproach her sternwise to see if I could make repairs. The lower hook had been torn completely away from the stitching and the upper hook had been bent so that it would not catch into the hook. With fingers and teeth, I managed to make the hook work, so we were tentatively in business. We both hopped back on the boat and sailed back to the beach without incident.
When we reached the beach, one of the other girls wanted to go for a sail, so we went straight out again. I did not see where Sally went. More wind had now got up and the boat handled much better and we sailed for about an hour with no problems. When we got back to the others on the beach, I found that Sally had gone home, presumably to get a more servicable bra, but we didn't see her again until we got back to the villa.
That evening, nothing was mentioned about the incident and Sally was pretty quiet, but then, she always was quiet. Later, a few of us were sitting having a drink at one of the bars along the beach. The conversation had lulled for a moment, so I proposed a toast to Sally for being a very brave girl during her ordeal of the morning, not mentioning what the ordeal was. So, I presumed people would think I was complimenting her on just being the first volunteer to go for a sail. At the end of the toast, I walked over to Sally to put my arms around her and give her a friendly kiss. As I bent over to kiss her, out of the corner of my eye, I'll swear I saw her right hand move as if to hit me. Then, I noticed tears in her eyes and she suddenly threw her arms around me and gave me a great big hug. At that point, I wasn't at all sure what I had done, right, wrong or whatever.
When I went back to my seat, Sally's room mate whispered to me "What the hell went on, out on that boat this morning?" So I quietly told her and she cracked up with laughter. Sally had apparently not mentioned a word to anyone. "But, that's the way Sally is" she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment