7/17/13 WINE, HEMINGWAY BOOKS, AND SAILING. A
FATHERS GIFT, BACKGROUND
AND POST 1 OF A PERSONAL WRITING FOR THE PUBLIC
Well I’ve been trying for a couple of days to get
things down but I haven’t had much luck. I blame most of it on work and on
account of the heat. I worked a really hard double yesterday at Red Lobster and
I’m sore.
I thought I wrote this down already and then remembered
I did some of it in a notebook last night, ha well that’s rum after a double
for you. Ok, well here is what I did the other day sailing.
Pilar Log 7/15/13
Monday was the first day to launch boat and I was
nervous about trying to learn which lines are which and how to fit the sail.
It’s been approximately seven years since I’ve sailed, and nine years since I
sailed with any regularity.
My father got me the boat for graduation last week
from a farmer in the middle of nowhere by Port Huron. The man said he never
sailed it, and the only reason he bought it was to help a friend of the family
to help out after a divorce. It looks sharp, but I hope it floats as well as it
looks.
The reasoning behind having the boat is hard to
understand if you don’t know my dad. The quick rundown is that we used to have
money, a boat and go to Jimmy Buffett concerts when I was a kid. I loved it and
read all I could about sailboats. I took sailing lessons for several years on
420 racers and when I entered High School joined the sailing team.
We lost a lot of money and he went to jail for bank
robbery. When he was in prison, my birthday cards covers where hand drawn
pictures of sailboats, islands and other Jimmy Buffett type stuff my dad paid a
friend to draw for me. They were beautifully drawn.
I hate to be an armchair psychologist , but now that
my dad is happy, well employed and doing better in many ways than he has done
in years, he wanted to give me a piece back of what I loved at a kid.
But back to sailing.
The boats back then were small so if it was a heavy
wind I would race well by hiking far out over the side of the boat and using my
weight to my advantage. If the wind was dead, the boat sat down in water most
of the time and could barely move. Small boat sailing and being over 250 pounds
has its ups and downs.
I’ve decided to name boat Pilar after Ernest Hemmingway’s
boat; she’s a CL 16, a Canadian sailboat made in 1991 that is similar to the
420’s I used to sail. She should be steadier in big water and be able to fit 5
people on board, but it will be more difficult to rig, and the main concern I
had is how to figure out how to fit the heavier mast without breaking the boat.
(A side note if you have not read Paul Hendrickson’s“Biography” of Hemmingway and his life centered on his boat Pilar, go buy it.
Although the chapters toward the end start to center around his youngest son’s
transgender lifestyle a little too much, it’s a very rewarding read.)
The forecast for Monday was sunny with no wind all
day, according to my girlfriend Rhelia’s cell phone on the way to St. Joseph. I
wasn’t concerned about this though, less wind means less chance of making a
mistake.
We got into town early, and in no rush due to the forecast
and the whole day off, went downtown to pick up a couple bottles of wine for my
mother’s birthday. We tasted five wines from White Pine Winery, which just set
up in downtown St. Joseph, and bought her a Pino Grigo. My favorite was a
Shiraz, but we also got her a portable wine cooler, so the white wine made more
sense as a gift. I highly recommend anyone in downtown St. Joseph to check the
place out.
When we got back my brother was in a bad mood, he
had just broken up with his girlfriend. He agreed to help but I knew that the
rigging could cause more anger if I let myself get frustrated. I promised
myself that I wouldn’t get upset no matter what happened.
I dropped Rhelia off at Lions Park Beach with the
idea of sailing up to her after we got everything going smoothly on during the
trip down the channel. My brother wasn’t the most optimistic person while we
loaded up the car pulling the boat with life jackets and the tiller.
“This is going to end in disaster,” is the exact
words he said.
No one was at the public boat launch when we got
there around 2:30 in the afternoon. Shortly after we pulled up though, a guy I vaguely
remembered from the bars in St. Joe (being a bouncer from 17 to 22 years old
means a lot of this when I’m in town.) We tried to back the sailboat carefully
into the water as the guy pretty much dumped his small fishing boat in and tied
her up.
“You going out,” the guy asked in a cheerful voice.
We replied that we were. He seemed the happiest person I had met in a while.
We got the boat and the trailer in the water, and I
was happy to see that both were floating. The boat was in the water! I climbed
on board with it still tied to the trailer and was happy to find that it was
steady to walk around in.
The first thing to do was also the hardest. I had to
put the mast up and secure it before we could hope to do anything else. This
was not easy as the mast was 20 feet long and weighed over 100 pounds. I
decided, strong that I am that I could pick it up myself and put it in the boat
easily.
Not really the case.
With Alex’s help I was finally able to set the mast into its slot, what I must remember next time is two things.
First I need to
disconnect the boat from the car and do this on land. The second is that a pulley
makes on the mainsail means I need to rotate the mast so it will fit in
correctly.
After we finally got it in there after a lot of
effort it was easy to screw in the blot that held it in there. I than went to
work on connecting the boom while Alex helped the fisherman catch minnows for
bait.
It took a while for me to get things right. In the
heat I took my shirt off and had sweat dripping in my eyes. I had just fitted
the mainsail when bad news hit.
In the form of thunder and lightning.
It looked like thee storm would pass over, but Alex
wasn’t so sure. I stood for in the boat and debating what to do before we saw a
far off lighting strike. Rhelia called from the beach and left a message saying
I
shouldn’t take it out, and Alex echoed the statement.
Before I took down the mast however I paused for a moment as Alex took a picture of me in the boat with the sail up so we could send it to Dad.
I didn’t get upset but kept a positive attitude,
which I was proud of. We packed the boat back up and other than hitting my head
getting into the car, the trip back to my mom’s place went smooth. I went and
picked up Rhelia in town and got a cup of coffee.
Back at home I took a large shot of vodka to quell
my disappointment and Alex, Rhelia and I went and saw Pacific Rim, which was a
great monster movie and one of the best films I’ve seen since The Dark Knight
Rises. We had a birthday dinner with my mom and gave her the Wine backpack and
Pino Grigo before we headed back to Kalamazoo at midnight with the dog fast
asleep on Rhelia's lap as we hit I-94.
So that was the first time Pilar was in the water.
Hopefully I will be able to try again to take her out soon.
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