Happy Hunt-ing

Yesterday was a fine yachting day. CAYUGA cooperated - no I Love Yachting stories, thankfully. Sometimes when we leave the dock all I want to do is turn around as fast as possible and dock her and call it a 5 minute day. But the longer we go without trouble, the more I think there's gonna be a massive issue, or well, maybe we'll have a whole bunch of beautiful outings and I should calm the f*** down.

I wasn't feeling well, might have been a bad crab the night before but I promised Brad I would attempt an afternoon rally and we'd poke the boat's nose out into Whitehall Bay and maybe that would be it but we'd find out.

Once I got away from the dock, I didn't start feeling better, no, but I was enjoying the light breeze and low chop so the ride was comfortable, and CAYUGA was humming along. She felt like she wanted to keep on going. Who was I to say no? We first called a friend to see if they were still at their place on Back Creek but they'd just left to get back to the DC area, so we went rode up past Naval Academy Bridge and then leisurely turned around to do a tour of Spa Creek, like everyone else.

CAYUGA never fails to catch someone's eye and this time it was a friend who was anchored out above the draw bridge. We'd just passed their boat and I was looking forward and Brad was glancing admirably backward at a beautiful yacht and the owner popped out onto the deck and waved - it was Bernard! As I waved back, he was already putting out fenders for us to pull alongside. Guess I'm going to be practicing some raft-up maneuvers unexpectedly - with a breeze. Brad, master of the obvious says, "Make sure you don't hit Bernard's boat". oh... really...

What do you do? You go slow and you observe how the other boat is swinging. She was swinging our way so I adjusted to have the breeze gently blow us up to the boat but then she started swinging away so now I've got to give our gal some juice. With 3 fenders on CAYUGA and 3 on RENATE, we landed softly and proceeded to join Bernard aboard with his guest Justin.

It turns out that Justin was the one who saw CAYUGA and pointed her out to Bernard - well he knew the boat and wasted no time rolling out the welcoming mat (AKA fenders). We hopped aboard Bernard's Hunt and enjoyed a quick tour of the boat and the engine compartment (it is stunningly clean and impressive). Talk about massive sea strainers, geez, the biggest.

The boat is kept at a local marina and Bernard had gone to the gas dock in hopes of a few days away from Annapolis to visit Oxford but this week's weather report had dashed that idea so the anchor was rolled out and they were just relaxing when we happened along.

Bernard's wife rang and it was time to get back to the dock and meet up for cocktails, so we gave Bernard and Justin a short look around CAYUGA and then we shoved off.

These are the moments that make all the "I love yachting" headaches seem like distant, fading memories that must have been in another life. I have missed being on a boat, a boat of my own to be specific, so much these past 8 years.

Life on the water, days like yesterday, are worth every penny and moment and shared on-the-water experience. This was a day when friends got a little closer and laughed a little lighter.