It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. One time I was on this boat off an island in the Gulf of Mexico. It wasn't a big boat, it was about a 17 foot fishing whaler. Not big, but big enough to handle the vast water around me.
I anchored about 300 yards of an island in a channel to wait for the prevailing tradewinds to simmer down. The topsy turvy one to three foot waves takes it toll on you after a while. it beats up even the wisest and worn sailors like myself.
I looked over to the right and this rather large brown pelican landed about 20 feet away from the pleasure vessel I was residing in. For those of you who have never seen a pelican, they are cool but creepy looking. They way they slant their eyes, as if they are the grim reaper of birds. They have a vulture type quality about them. Obviously he was looking for food, but all I had was some Hanover honey mustard pretzels. Dang I should have brought some Goldfish.
Then a gust of wind came and blew off my sweet summer Fedora into the water...a few feet from the dastardly Mr. Pelican. The hat didn't sink...it was just floating. I thought for sure some shark or barracuda wanted to wear it. Mr. Pelican would have looked good wearing it.
I looked over to the right and this rather large brown pelican landed about 20 feet away from the pleasure vessel I was residing in. For those of you who have never seen a pelican, they are cool but creepy looking. They way they slant their eyes, as if they are the grim reaper of birds. They have a vulture type quality about them. Obviously he was looking for food, but all I had was some Hanover honey mustard pretzels. Dang I should have brought some Goldfish.
Then a gust of wind came and blew off my sweet summer Fedora into the water...a few feet from the dastardly Mr. Pelican. The hat didn't sink...it was just floating. I thought for sure some shark or barracuda wanted to wear it. Mr. Pelican would have looked good wearing it.
So my trusty beautiful sidekick orders me to pull in the anchor because we were going to go get it. It took several minutes to pull in the anchor, about 50 feet. My strapping arms locked in pain as I pulled the heavy anchor to the boat. All the while still looking at the hat as to no lose sight of it. It could be near Cuba if I didn't keep my eye on it.
My trusty beautiful sidekick takes control of the boat, and starts it up. We go to get the hat. We drive by it, and miss it. So she does another turn in the gusting winds and high waves. Meanwhile in the back of my mind I know all water is connected and surely there are sharks at least within 200 miles. Sharks can sense fear, so I know I was in trouble. We did a u-turn around...then I grabbed the hat as I reached over the side. No sharks!
I looked at the bow of the boat and told my trusty beautiful side kick to watch out for the lobster trap buoy. She said nothing and drove straight right over it. I hoped that it was nothing. I looked behind the boat and didn't see the buoy anywhere. Oh no.
I went to the other side to see and sure enough we were dragging the lobster trap. The rope got caught up in the propeller. "STOP", I said. She stopped the craft. Sure enough we were pulling the lobster trap, and the rope and buoy were on the propeller. I had to reach over and untangle the rope from the prop while she held my legs...so I wouldn't go head first into the deep (about 6ft) sea. It took about a minute, maybe less, seemed like an hour to untangle the lobster trap.
She laughed. I was soaking wet. She wanted to keep the trap. I just wanted to go. What's the moral of the story?
Don't wear a hat that floats.
ReplyDeleteLandlubbers shouldn't be allowed out to sea with anything other than an inner tube or rubber ducky. (3 foot waves take a toll???!! That's just gentle swells.) Try 20+ foot waves in a 20 foot boat; now THOSE are fun!! (but they take a toll on your fuel usage)
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