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Kagan, bring the dory home
I spent this afternoon sailing on the Charles. It was marvelous.
I'd never been sailing before in any sense that involved active participation, and I am pleased to report that I only got smacked in the head with the boom once and we never capsized. This was courtesy of Shlomo, who does not have a livejournal, but who does have access to the boathouse at MIT; we took out a dinghy and zigzagged back and forth between the Longfellow and Harvard Bridges. The wind died each time one of us commented on it, but mostly the weather was fine so long as we stayed away from it conversationally. ("In zer old country, zer scenery is psychotropic . . .") There were windsurfers and duck tours and other sailboats, even a gondola out on the water. The riverbanks look different from in between, so that even this familiar stretch might have been somewhere else. I know now what a halyard is; I was right about which side is starboard and which side is port. I should like very much to do this more often.
Most of Gordon Bok's "Peter Kagan and the Wind" makes much more sense now.
I'd never been sailing before in any sense that involved active participation, and I am pleased to report that I only got smacked in the head with the boom once and we never capsized. This was courtesy of Shlomo, who does not have a livejournal, but who does have access to the boathouse at MIT; we took out a dinghy and zigzagged back and forth between the Longfellow and Harvard Bridges. The wind died each time one of us commented on it, but mostly the weather was fine so long as we stayed away from it conversationally. ("In zer old country, zer scenery is psychotropic . . .") There were windsurfers and duck tours and other sailboats, even a gondola out on the water. The riverbanks look different from in between, so that even this familiar stretch might have been somewhere else. I know now what a halyard is; I was right about which side is starboard and which side is port. I should like very much to do this more often.
Most of Gordon Bok's "Peter Kagan and the Wind" makes much more sense now.
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Never did in Maine?
Nine
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No; my grandparents did not sail. I learned to swim in Maine.
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You don't look like a seal, but doubtless you have a selkie skin folded up somewhere.
Nine
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And I've been on all sorts of small boat trips, most recently to the Farne Islands. So I suppose if I really wanted to go sailing, I could organise it - but I'm still jealous of your afternoon on the Charles.
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I'm jealous of your trip to the Farne Islands . . .
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I didn't think anyone else but me even remembered that.
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I've never heard a version by Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy; that sounds fantastic. I grew up on Gordon Bok. My parents would play "Peter Kagan and the Wind" as a treat for me, when I was small; my father would sing the refrain.
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I've never heard that one; I've wanted to for years.
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I'm not sure what my grandfather did to repair the boat. It looked like hell, but it did not sink; he was pretty awesome at doing things like that, though.
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I think he's in Texas until early August—he left this morning—but when he gets back, I personally would love to sail more. Want to come along?
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Make friends with someone who has access to a boathouse, I've found . . .