NewSailingDiary

Its the 4th of July and your sharing burgers with family members
and those
special friends from "out a state" that you allow to enter your
inner circle. Your
special friends comment" ohhhh Maine is so beautiful this time of
year, but what
do you guys do here in the winter"? The iceboater brain goes
into rewind/scan
mode and loads into memory Jan 31. A big grin takes over your
face as your
"press play button" has been pushed. Not taking time to swallow
his mouth full of
burger the off season iceboater gleaming with anticipation takes
a reclined
position at the picnic table with his feet braced on the opposing
seat edge, legs
straddling the umbrella mast protruding through the table. With
burger grasped
tightly in right hand , empty salad bowl on head and sunglasses
flipped down the
iceboater has in mere seconds created the perfect iceboat
simulator. You have
the undivided attention of your friends and a few family
members that have not
seen you do this routine before. "Whoooosh" I explain as I spit
hamburger residue
all over the table. Thats all you hear is whoooosh and the rattle
of runners as my
boat flies over the ice so fast that my gps cannot accurately
measure its speed.
And to go faster I yank on the rope like this. As I yank on the
sheetrope ketchup
squirts out of my burger and onto my shirt. And my rear beam
does this as I
bounce myself and three other people up and down on the
buckling picnic table
plank. A quick yank on the umbrella crank, two blocking its
mechanism shows
how taught the sail gets during such extreme conditions. And
then when I skid
around the cones it sounds like this, as I drag a butterknife down
the umbrella
mast sideways and chatter it just a bit. A fistfull of ice ejected
from the drink
bucket and into the air all but puts this demonstration over the
edge. Oh no!! as
I am rounding the cone in a howling skid I look to my inside and
there is Mike on
the other end of the picnic table, in a reclined position, squashed
burger in hand
trying to pass me.