Oh Yeah, My Boat Has a Mast: Why You Should Fear Trees

This will be a quick one, and you already know what happened from the title.

I took my buddy, his wife, and their two kids (about 2 and 6) to eat at Cunningham's Creekside, a local restaurant that is on the creek (duh).

No wind.  Like, at all.

Fine.

We just headed straight to Cunningham's, which was fine.  It was the day before Derby and there was a big to-do over at Captain's Quarters (nice place but mostly too rich for my blood....erm, pocketbook).  It looked like a lot of fun and we waved as we turned into Harrod's Creek. 

We puttered along nicely, trees and some wildlife passing slowly by on the port side.  I dodged limbs and other stuff left in the water from the flood.

Food was good, as usual.  We left afterward and headed back to Limestone Bay. 

Now this part is pretty funny.  I undid the hitches from the cleats, asking my buddy to hold onto the railing so we didn't drift away, then I got in the boat and prepared to put it in reverse.

Me: "Okay, go ahead and give us a little push away, you don't have to push hard or anything"

Friend: "Just push it away?"

Me: "Yeah."

So, that's what he did.  He pushed us away.  And there we are, staring at him on the dock as we drift slowly away.

"Get on!!"

"What?!"

"______, You're supposed to GET ON THE BOAT when you shove off!"

"Oh!"

We throw a line to him and he's good to go, but that was a lesson learned: skippers should be very specific in their instructions.  Next time I will not assume that someone knows to jump back ON the boat.


Now, pay attention to this part, newbies (like me):

On the way in, the trees were on the far bank.  Not so while coming back.  The first indication I had of this fact was the rustling of trees above my head and the light pressure of leaves falling on my shoulder.

I looked up and, lo and behold, someone had placed a mast on my boat!  Not only that, it went quite a ways up- far enough to graze some of the lower-hanging tree branches!  I hadn't thought of that at all, and hadn't noticed!  Frankly, I was lucky that all I did was graze the branches.

Okay.  Watch the trees and the mast.  Lesson learned.  Whew!

The rest of the trip was, thankfully, uneventful.