Sailing stories

Long Ago:
I entered the Chittenden locks aboard my fine craft, tired, hungry, poorer, and late for class. This proved to be a good combination, in that it made my comically small outboard (Mercury Mariner 2hp) no reason for concern. I motored at about one tenth of a knot into the small lock. Eventually, I made it between the lock doors, to the relief of the lockmasters. The rest of the ship canal slipped by peacefully, interrupted only by a series of 5 stoccato horn blasts and "If you want to go under the bridge you need to go faster." Fremont bridge operators have such a great sense of humor.

June 19, 2009:
I exited the Chittenden locks aboard my fine craft excited, motorless, and fueled by a couple of bottles of liquid optimism. A broken shear pin was no issue, after all, who needs a motor when a storm is mounting! I managed to get a tow upwind beyond the lee shore of West Point, and set sail just as the Puget Sound began acting all bothered and vengeful.

September 24, 2009
I entered the Chittenden locks aboard my fine craft excited to return home, I backed down the outboard into reverse, and it stayed there.It was at this point in time that the shift handle had learned a dance that's humorous nature has yet to dawn on me. It is a continous, smooth pirouette three hundred and sixty degrees, no longer tied down by the confines of the shift linkage.