TOPIC: More Expert Sailors

The humorous story about Captain Crunch on the site cover page reminded me of a sailboat trip I took back around 1980. (It was a fiberglass sailboat , so it's sort of relevant.) My friend Ted from work invited two of us out on his 35 foot sailboat for a day on the Chesapeake Bay. Ted made the mistake of leaving me and my buddy George, both powerboat people, to man the tiller and sails. Ted was down in the cabin, imbibing another " old fashioned" , about his fourth one of the afternoon. Neither George nor I was referring to any charts of the area . The winds shifted, or we mismanaged the tiller, and we started floundering with the sails flapping and limp. At that very moment, a Coast Guard cutter came roaring up on our stern, and using a megaphone, informed us in very stern language that we had sailed into the restricted waters of the military Aberdeen Proving Grounds, and ordered us to leave immediately, or be subject to seizure and arrest. Ted came staggering up out of the cabin about then, and threw a fit because apparently an official report of the incident would be made and issued by the Coast Guard. Further, Ted feared he would be thrown out of his sailing squadron for making such a blunder. Needless to say, neither George nor I was ever invited out sailing again.