ok so back to the adventure with the dream machine. my mother and i decided to set sail the next day after we got the boat out of retirement. i use to know things about sailing, but i myself had been in retirement, seeing that it had been 10 years since i'd been on a sailboat. so i watched my mother get the boat ready, i jump on board and she soon follows my lead. wow were we sailing!!! we managed to sail 5 feet and then the boat tipped over! ok so that should've been a warning sign. i mean, that isn't normal and there wasn't some catastrophic wind that would have caused that to happen. but my mother was determined. so my cousins helped us flip the boat upright and gave us a sand bucket and said see ya!
so we sail a ways and the boat flips. we're laughing because it is a bit humorous. i stand on the center board and flip the boat back. 2 feet later the boat flips, hahaha it's still fun, then it flips again and again. basically i couldn't keep track of the number of times that the stupid 1970's sailboat flipped. all i knew was that it wasn't funny anymore and now we were in a predicament. how in the world are we going to make it home??? sure we were a mile off shore, but all the adults were out for the morning, which meant that no one was going to rescue us anytime soon. i'm standing on the flipped boat at this point, watching these people boating near us just having the time of their lives! ha i guess we were invisible or something because if i was on a motor boat and i saw two women on a capsized boat i'd probably we see if they need help. but nooo, we were all alone in the middle of silver lake with a sailboat that had since it's last sail and a sand bucket. fun basically. while at this point we felt that the only thing left to do was swim to the shore....therefore my mother made the executive decision that i'd man the boat as she swam to shore. yeah i don't know how she decided that seeing that i know zero about sailing and i still have my youth, or at least i like to think i do. so my mom starts swimming toward shore. i'm left standing on the boat, just chilling. so as she is swimming away i have this sudden burst of energy and i decide that i'm going to make this boat sail back, even if it meant risking my life....ok so i got a little carried away right there....anyway i failed miserably and this fail resulted in 12 bruises on my arms ha. so after trying to sail the boat like 4 more times i surrender and just stand on the boat. then all of a sudden i hear a boat!! finally someone is here to save me!! the boat gets closer and i'm like wonder what the name of this boat is??? oh that's nice marine patrol!! i think that i'd rather be saved by pirates then the marine patrol of north conway. it was this old man that looked like he was straight out of an andy griffith episode. i'm like great! i was expecting johnny depp and i get barney fife! he's like you need some help?? me thinking to myself "what do you think?? i'm in the middle of silver lake with a vintage sailboat that has died in the water! i'm just ya know, dandy!" but i refrain and laugh and am like yeah!! so his like okay well put the sail down and i'll tie her to my boat. sure, i know how to do that ha. i'm glad that i watched my mom put the sail up or i'd be clueless. i manage to get the sail down and climb into the patrol boat. the guy is all smiles. creepy. he calls into the station and reports "female on board with capsized boat in silver lake...." i'm like great! he starts asking me questions and has me fill out paper work. oh and i'm like "oh i think that's my mom???" my mom is on some jet ski with a stranger, she waves and then disappears towards shore. maybe it's because i live in memphis now, but i don't trust people enough to think that they are "safe." like barney fife totally a creeper in my book. after i filled out the paper work he looked down at my writing and goes.."Katie Waitt...." i'm thinking "yeah it's a perfect common name...and why are you saying my name?" ugh. well after what feels like an eternity i make it back to shore. we tie up the boat and barney lectures my mom about always staying with the boat and to use the universal distress signal...which i guess is waving your arms up in the air, as if a capsized boat isn't enough of a distress signal. and he informs us that we should always carry a whistle, then processed to tell us that we need to have the boat registered. oh what a day! and what an adventure. so after we retell the events to the family and all have a good laugh. later that day we investigate the dream machine and come to find out that it had a leak in it!!!! a massive leak. so it wasn't the sailor's fault at all. it had been 20 or so years since the boat had sailed, basically meaning that it was well pass it's glory days.
i guess this boat wasn't really meant to sail that day and maybe the only thing that keep the little blue boat a float was the determination that my mother had to relive her youth. which is always good in theory, but honesty when was the last time that you went back to something that left such a mark on your heart from the past and you tried to bring it back to the present, that it ended up being a good thing? like i remember i loved sloppie joe's as a kid and a couple years back i decided to relive that favorite meal...so i made manwich and about vomited because it was so gross haha. i guess my point things are best left in the past because as time moves on we change, things change, and what we felt was so perfect then doesn't fit in the present. life's all about timing and sure the dream machine was the queen of silver lake 30 years ago, but that was then and this is now. well that's all i have for now. i do have to say that i'm glad that i had the opportunity to sail on that boat, even if it left me with my share of scars.
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