Anniversary

So there I was...celebrating 32 years of marriage with my best friend last week.  As we reminisced over dinner that night I could still feel the fear, as if it were just yesterday, watching her father walk her down the isle with a shotgun in his hand.  We had little in common when we first met but over the years her dreams have become mine and mine hers.  In our early years together she soon realized that I could not get enough time "messing about in boats" and adventures would become a norm.  Many would have run the other way, or at least distance themselves from the insanity, but not Kim.  If it was important to me, it was important to her.  She was, and is, such a giver with enthusiasm to top it off.  She was right there with me rappelling down that hundred foot cliff in Missouri, motorcycling across Oklahoma in wicked thunderstorms, hiking to the top of Tuckerman's Ravine on Mt. Washington, NH in two feet of snow for our fifteenth anniversary, hoping out of a Jacuzzi in bathing suits to throw ourselves into a Colorado snowbank (just because) and so many boating experiences when we thought we might lose it all.  As I prepare for another adventure on Eventide this summer it is Kim going out of her way to make sure I have this opportunity.  There is no better wife, mother, friend.

Close Call

So there I was...too weak to stand, crawling on my hands and knees from the cockpit of Eventide into the main cabin.  A few years ago a hurricane was making its way up the east coast bent on hitting New England.  Many boats had been pulled out of the water and placed safely ashore in expectation of the very high winds and waves expected to hit the Mystic, CT area.  Several boats that were moored next to me headed up nearby rivers to get some protection inland.  I looked at this as a great adventure.  To ride out the storm on my mooring, a 1,200 pound train wheel and axle securely planted offshore at the mouth of the Mystic River, and feel what it's like to be in the middle of all the action.  By late morning the winds began to increase as I put the finishing touches on all the extra lines I had attached to every available cleat on the boat with an abundance of chafing gear to keep them from wearing through once the waves got crazy.  As I looked around there was nobody anywhere to be seen on the remaining boats near me.  After preparing their boats they had headed for shore.  I was taking lots of pictures as the storm grew in intensity, fascinated by the incredible forces knocking my boat around,  like it was a mere toy.  Then several boats broke away from their moorings, one almost ramming me on its way to crashing onto the rocks at shore.  This was all quite an adrenaline rush and I was thinking that I was glad I got to have a front seat to this spectacle when something happened that I didn't expect.  I got seasick.  As the storm churned it's worst with no end in sight I relinquished my lunch, then breakfast, then yesterdays dinner to the sea from the aft rail of the cockpit.  Though I had no more to give, my stomach had obviously missed the memo.  Eventually, from the many hours I'd spent in the strong winds and my drained physical condition, my core temperature and hydration were getting to dangerous levels as I started shaking uncontrollably.  No longer able to stand, I fell to the floor of the cockpit keeping my eyes shut to stop the dry heaving that refused to cease.  Knowing I was in real trouble here with no one able to get to me in these conditions, I crawled, eyes closed, into and through the main cabin getting tossed onto my side several times from the violent jerking of the boat straining against the mooring lines as one huge wave after another made contact with Eventide.  Finally making it to the V-berth I flopped on my bunk and blindly started pulling anything my hands could reach on top of me to hold in the heat.  After about two hours I finally stopped shaking though the storm raged on for many more hours.  By next morning friends came to check on their boats and gave me a ride to shore, beaten up but still in one piece.  And boy was I hungry.