Chapter One
I had just completed a three day offshore passage and, while I needed to hit a marina and 'clean up my act' with their laundry and shower facilities, I also needed to wind down from the rigors of 72 hours of singlehanded ocean sailing. I'm still in pretty darn good shape but at fifty-five I'm starting to feel the effects of time.
As I past an anchorage that I had heard others talk about as having a nice beach, I noticed that even though it was the middle of summer, only one small – about 36' – trawler was anchored and a few small runabouts were pulled to the beach. The runabouts would probably be out of there by night fall as it was mid-week and I didn't mind being on the hook with one other boat overnight, if they were planning to stay.
The hailing port on the stern of LORRY'S OK was about 30 miles away so there was a good chance that they were out for more than the day. At 6 knots, an average cruising speed for a trawler, they would need to pull anchor soon if not intending a night passage.
The inhabitants of LORRY'S OK looked to be a fairly young couple so, not wanting to offend when I showered in the cockpit, I anchored with my bow facing LORRY'S stern. I paid little attention to the runabouts or their inhabitants but, realizing that at some point I may go the trawler route, I'm always checking them out.
It's not unusual for sailors to switch to trawlers when they get older and while that is hopefully a ways off, it will probably come someday. What is somewhat unusual is to see 'younger' owners of trawlers. With a cruise speed of less than 10 knots and closer to 6, trawlers seem pretty fast to ex-sailors but 'paint drying' slow to most 30 something's.
LORRY'S OK was what is known as a sundeck trawler, which means she – yes, I'm enough of a traditionalist to believe that all boats are she's - has an aft cabin that is full width and amazingly roomy for the boat's length. She had a RIB tied-up to the stern and two kayaks which were currently in use by her occupants. So much for LORRY'S OK.
Having set the hook, shut down the engine and activated the anchor alarm on the chart plotter, I proceeded to tidy up ALWAYS, my 31' rather traditional – I did say that I was a traditionalist – cutter. I'm the second owner of ALWAYS. The previous owner had her designed as traditional above the waterline and anything but below. While being light weight she's anything but lightly built with scantlings twice ABYC's standards. She was built to always take anything that could be thrown at her and 'ALWAYS' take on any go fast racing boat close to her length.
One true joy for any sailor is to watch the look on the crew of another boat when you beat them to a point. And, for those of you claiming 'not to race' I say baloney. With her tanbark sails, cutter rig and carbon fiber mast, painted to look wood, ALWAYS' crew gets to see that look often. But enough about sailing; this tale is about tail, not tale tails. Perhaps I'll tell of how I came to acquire ALWAYS in another tale but for now let it be known that I'm far from a 1% and could never have afforded to have her built.
ALWASYS has splash cloths around the cockpit that also provide some privacy. So, having tidied her up, I decided to take a nap in the cockpit, au-natural, until the day boaters departed so I could shower without offending. One by one I heard engines start and felt the gentle wake of the runabouts. After a lull of about 10 minutes I was about to get up to see if the last one had departed when I heard, "ahoy there, oh my gosh, I'm sorry". I looked up to see the embarrassed face of Robert.
"I'm sorry; let me put my shorts on."
"No, no, it's just that, well, Lorry suggested that we invite you for dinner and we were just waiting for the last of the others to leave. Please, it's ok; I'll just leave."
"Well, if you are offended, I'll get something on. Come aboard for a drink; it sounds like a great offer and I'll not let you rescind it."
