David and Cheri Howard's Sailing Stories

I came down this weekend with Kelsey, my daughter, Cheri, and my brother Preston for a weekend of sailing. We got in on Friday night evening around 6:30 and decided to go right to dinner after unloading everything on the boat. We had not been to Borrell Creek so we headed back up the road. The sign on the way in said live entertainment on Friday night, so that’s why we headed that way. When we got there, there was no entertainment but we sat down and ate anyway. By the time we got our mean it was already 9 o’clock and we were tired. The food was not that great. We headed back to the boat, fixed some cocktails and relaxed before finally heading to bed. Saturday we awoke to a cloudy day but still very warm. I backed out of the slip and immediately had a scare as the current began pushing me down the middle of the boats through the marina. It was a little frightening but I got the boat turned and headed straight out and we were on our way. I had to stop for fuel at Lang’s and Nat helped us get the diesel in the boat. Nat is the local Marina dock hand. He seems to always be working. We then headed out to the sound. Unfortunately, there was not much wind today. So we just barely moved around. We had our lunch that Cheri had made. It was homemade chicken salad and it was good. I always tow the dinghy but today, I decided, for some reason not to, and of course, the crew wanted to get off at the very south end of Cumberland at the beach and explore. So, we threw out the anchor, grab our life jackets, and headed for the shore. We had to account for the current. It was hard but it was a good swim. By this time the sun was out, we walked up and down the beach, looked at some shells and then headed back to the boat. It was just too hot. We grabbed our life jackets and again timed the current and swam back. We then pulled up the anchor and headed back to the docks. We ran into some strong rain storms on the way in and had to put on our rain gear, but it was actually very refreshing. Upon arriving at the docks, I could tell that the currents were very strong and swirling around. As I entered, I just got off on my timing when I turned into the slip and ended up hitting the corner of the dock kind of hard on the port side. I got very irritated with myself because I never dock that badly. Hey, there was no one at the dock to see me so as the saying goes, “if a tree falls in the forest and no one sees it, does it make a noise”. Well, I don’t think anyone saw me, so there. Anyway, after the bad docking, we all relaxed and headed to the steak house in town. This place is always good. Everyone enjoyed their meals. As we headed home, Kelsey wanted to go into Seagals Bar. I had never been there but had, of course, heard of Cindy Dean. Well she did not disappoint. Cheri ordered a round of tequila shots and Ms Dean took it from there with her vibrant personality. It was fun. We stayed and had a beer after the shot and then walked back to the boat. Got back, relaxed in the cockpit, listened to some good music and then went to bed. We woke up Sunday, and headed home. We really had a great time. Kelsey is such a fun kid.