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I am sailing
I am sailing
Home again
'Cross the sea
I am sailing,
Stormy waters
To be near you,
To be free
Rod Stewart's throaty song, 'Sailing'
Mary1 loves sailing. Despite having grown up in a sailing kind of a family, along with a windsurfer, an Optimist dinghy, a Hobie Cat and an ocean-going yacht she never really took to sailing in a serious way until she went sailing in the Indian Ocean with three non-Johns. The bug bit. In a life-threatening, mind-altering way. Mary1 had to remedy this affliction fast.
She enrolled in sailing school and qualified as a crew member and also managed by hook or by crook to get her radio operating license. Most folks don't know that one cannot use the radio on a yacht and do the 'Mayday, Mayday, Mayday' thing when one is in dire straits without such a lisence. Mary1 is a cautious type; she got herself lisenced. It was a prophylactic kind of a course. Like Malaria tablets and condoms. Not necessarily necessary. But. Imagine if she could not call for help in the middle of the Southern Ocean when the skipper was knocked unconcious by the boom, her yacht was demasted or they hit an iceberg or whatever.
John69 is a sailor. A professional sailor. He gets paid to sail. Imagine that; getting paid to do what you love. John69 sails all over the world. For his job! John69 has got it right. Most of us do not.
So, what do sailors do for a first date? They take the Mary sailing. First a coffee on the veranda over-looking the yachts bobbing about in the yacht basin. Then sailing. Then lunch.
How odd you may be thinking. But, no. This is very, very clever of John69. You see, any Mary he may decide to date more regularly ought to like sailing for starters. Imagine having a moaning Mary back home every time one goes sailing. Especially when one sails off for months on end. Not a happy scenario. So, John69 was testing Mary1 on their first outing.
Mary1 was in her element. Quite frankly, it did not matter to Mary1 how John69 turned out. How bad can a chap be when out at sea? They cannot be bad at all. Mary1 mucked in. She climbed up the mast on the funny little steps that pop out the mast, she yanked sheets (ropes), she made fancy knots like bowlines, she cleated and uncleated, she shackled and unshackled, Mary1 even took the helm for a while. She did however get a proverbial kick in the butt from John69 for sitting on her butt when winching. "Get off your butt and put some power behind you when winching!" John69 bellowed when Mary1 was winching sweetly seated in the cockpit like a lady. She leapt up and squatted down and put all her might into the winching there on out. Goodbye lady. Hello Mary-sailor. She was very pleased with this lesson. John69 was conserned that he had been a bit harsh with Mary1 on date one when schooling her in the nuances of sailing. No. He did not hurt her feelings. John69 was right. This was sailing. Not a pleasure launch. And Mary1 was crew. Not a paying guest.
John69 is just back from a long, long sail in the Indian Ocean. Oh, how she wishes she could have accompanied him on that adventure to Madagascar, Seychelles, Mauritius. And the next trip and the next. But Mary1 is sort of landbound for the next four years until her third born is thoroughly schooled and flies the nest. Then she can take off for long, long trips forever! So, in the meanwhile Mary1 must respect John69's needs.
The words of the group Looking Glass's one hit wonder in the 1970s says it all:
He came on a summer's day
Bringing gifts, from far away
But he made it clear, he couldn't stay
No harbour was his home
Lucky John69.