We said goodbye to Jamie as he took the ferry back to Boston and we left the marina for a much cheaper mooring. We spent two more nights, did some walking around town, Matt did some dinghy repair because, well because something had to break, and Graham and Amy grocery shopped in the single most expensive grocery store on the planet but, we were happy to pay their exorbitant prices. Not really. On the eve of our departure, there was much excitement. The mooring field was as crowded as a drive-in movie. It was different from the anchorages we have been to because there has always been more distance between us and other boats. In Block Island, we were on top of each other. Anyway, it was Saturday night and every body was out and about – either on deck or at the marina for happy hour. The DJ was an amusing mix of mostly 70s, some 80s. Amusing to Amy, that is; enough to make poor Matty’s stomach turn and he had to be outside as he was fixing the dinghy by last light. Amy showered and put on her party dress, literally, and brought her newly acquired bean bag chair up to the cockpit so she could listen to Michael Jackson, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor and Van Morrison. As the boat shifted in the wind, the sound of the music would fade and return and it was as if Amy got to play a big game of music trivia because you could only hear certain parts of the songs. Matt and Graham will never play this with Amy so she had a ball.
As the night wore on, Matt made pizza from scratch and we settled in only to be awakened by what, at first, sounded like a marital spat on a neighboring boat. Graham and Amy went above to discover the husband was on the large fishing boat off our bow and the wife was in their dinghy off our stern. He was yelling her name and telling her what to do to get back to him as she was drifting out to sea. She could not keep her motor engaged. Our dink had already been hauled for our early morning sail else Matt would’ve just gone out to get her. Finally, the husband sent the local help boat after her and, after circling her and not seeing her dim dinghy light, they finally found and towed her back to her mooring. By that time, her husband had left the mooring and motored off in the direction she had floated screaming, “JOANIE! JOANIE!” (Name has been changed to protect the innocent.) All was resolved in the end.
Word of the Day
pelagic \puh-LAJ-ik\, adjective:
1. Of or pertaining to the open seas or oceans.
2. Living or growing at or near the surface of the ocean, far from land, as certain organisms.
I was reminded of certain kinds of pelagic birds that move at ease in the air or on the ocean, but have a hard time walking.
— Ross MacDonald, The Blue Hammer
However, the real slaughter, the one that all the maritime nations of the world opposed and strove to abolish, was pelagic sealing, the kind that Schransky particularly enjoyed and from which he profited enormously.
— James Michener, Alaska
Pelagic is derived from the Greek word pélag which meant “the sea.”