The v-drive repair got a good workout Saturday as Kintala was tasked with being the "photo boat" for a sailboat parade to honor the marina's newest newlyweds. (Friend Schmitty and his lovely bride Karen tied the knot on the bow of Alcestis; pretty cool, yes?) There wasn't much wind and we needed to, literally, run circles around them to set up the shots, so it was all done by motor. It was as good a test of the v-drive as possible. There were even some nice comments made about my ability to put the subject boat where the photographers needed it to be in relation to Kintala's bow, right lighting, good angles, and pretty close. What they didn't know was that I spent a few years as the photo pilot for an airshow team; where we flew together at half the distance we had between the boats and at 30 times the speed.
Sadly, my boat handling skills were not near as good when we left the dock. Somehow, on a nearly calm day, I managed to put a 3' x 1' scrape down the side of Kintala's port hull by dragging it down the corner of a finger pier. Deb had suggested we use a tag line to pull the bow around, something we have done often enough. I should have listened. (One would think I would have learned by now.) It isn't a bad scrape; less than an hours worth of buffing should be all it takes to make it go away. In my defense the bow did start moving in the right direction at first, as one would have expected given the direction of the slight wind. It just didn't keep going that way. That scrape bothered me for the rest of the day. I am ending a 37 year, 11000+ hour, 12000+ landing career in aviation having never done anything that led directly to putting a scratch on an airplane. This is not to say there were no scratches; I did fly some pretty sketchy airplanes. Tail wheel failures, brakes failures, steering failures, bits coming loose to bang on other bits, and one bullet hole; these, among others long forgotten, all left marks. But none were directly my fault.
So bouncing Kintala off the dock was a bit discouraging. We are on the cusp of doing this full time and it would be nice to be a little further up the learning curve. Still, what is one to do? Sometimes the universe unfolds in ways unexpected and, much of the time, we are just along for the ride. A whole host of different currents have intertwined in our lives and, as it turns out, it is very close to time for us to go. The boat isn't quite ready. I'm not quite ready. I'm still not 100% sure that the bank account is ready. On the one hand all of that has to be accounted for somehow. But on the other hand, at a level almost too deep to grasp, none of it matters at all.
Because it is very close to time for us to go.
Sadly, my boat handling skills were not near as good when we left the dock. Somehow, on a nearly calm day, I managed to put a 3' x 1' scrape down the side of Kintala's port hull by dragging it down the corner of a finger pier. Deb had suggested we use a tag line to pull the bow around, something we have done often enough. I should have listened. (One would think I would have learned by now.) It isn't a bad scrape; less than an hours worth of buffing should be all it takes to make it go away. In my defense the bow did start moving in the right direction at first, as one would have expected given the direction of the slight wind. It just didn't keep going that way. That scrape bothered me for the rest of the day. I am ending a 37 year, 11000+ hour, 12000+ landing career in aviation having never done anything that led directly to putting a scratch on an airplane. This is not to say there were no scratches; I did fly some pretty sketchy airplanes. Tail wheel failures, brakes failures, steering failures, bits coming loose to bang on other bits, and one bullet hole; these, among others long forgotten, all left marks. But none were directly my fault.
So bouncing Kintala off the dock was a bit discouraging. We are on the cusp of doing this full time and it would be nice to be a little further up the learning curve. Still, what is one to do? Sometimes the universe unfolds in ways unexpected and, much of the time, we are just along for the ride. A whole host of different currents have intertwined in our lives and, as it turns out, it is very close to time for us to go. The boat isn't quite ready. I'm not quite ready. I'm still not 100% sure that the bank account is ready. On the one hand all of that has to be accounted for somehow. But on the other hand, at a level almost too deep to grasp, none of it matters at all.
Because it is very close to time for us to go.
1 comment:
TJ, I have had my Bertram for almost 18 years and I am always nervous the first time out.
Bill Kelleher
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