Can’t Always Be This Good

Teenagers and grandparents galore for a Saturday morning sail on June 9th. The crew: Grandma E (pretty in traditional blue and white sailing style), Zachary (backward baseball cap, Georgetown tank top, Joshua (reflective sunglasses-too cool), nephew Nathaniel (clean cut Cornell clad), Papa John (fishermans hat).

We set out due south across the sound in light winds of 7 knots. Nathaniel, an experienced sailor, was enthusiastic from the start working his way around Gerty. Our happy sail took us a good distance until the wind died completely. The guests didn’t mind as they played a captivating game of Rummikub in the cockpit as we approached our destination.

We anchored out on the shore of Lattingtown, New York with a plan to visit college friends of Elaine for lunch. Joshua and Zachary paddle boarded to shore to help us alleviate the problem of an overloaded dinghy. After a twenty minute discussion about how not to wind up submerged in the cold water, they decided to risk it and departed on their wobbly ride.

Amazingly, the lack of wind coincided perfectly with our ridiculous plan to anchor in a completely unprotected location with no dinghy dock access! We lucked out, left Gerty safely off the coast and beached the dinghy, grandparents and all. Our hosts, the Cramers live in a deliciously beautiful neighborhood, complete with backyard wetlands and beach.

They treated our empty sailor bellies to a traditional New York deli lunch that filled up even the three teenage boys. Thank you Eva and Marvin!

Always a bit of regret when sailors must adhere to a timeline, but we had to deliver our guests back to Mamaroneck by late afternoon so we motored home due North into the warm salty air.

As I write this a week after the above excursion, I recognize that not all sails will be as good as those this season have consistently been. Doesn’t there have to be trouble on the horizon? A quarrel, a hardship, a mess, an illness, something? That said, those things are not here now. In the present, there is Gerty with her sails spread wing on wing in a glorious display against the sun. There is the sound of a lateral waterfall flowing from the transom and gentle waves sloshing against the starboard hull. There is Michael futzing as usual with a line in his happiest state of busyness. And there are these recent memories of giddy, corny togetherness. Moments that have not existed between the four of us in years. It’s hard to explain. We passed around a bag of pretzels and talked about Nathaniel’s return from Israel, Zachary’s departure to Jordan, Joshua’s upcoming prom, memories of Maine on July 4th, the bird poop on Zachary’s shirt, the best way to peel an apple, the best way to hold into the wind, the ocean wildlife we hope to see, the places we want to go and more.