I found out Rich Porter had a new sailboat when he tried to sell me his old one.
“Join me in City Island,” he had texted, “we’ll make the C.I. Sailing Club!”
I had reservations about owning a sailboat when I don’t even have a car,
but Jeff and I took Rich and Pali up on the offer to join them for a day of sailing aboard the new boat.
“It is a Pearson Ariel,” said Rich, “designed by Carl Alberg in 1961.”
He said it was the one of the first production fiberglass sailboats ever made, for a growing middle-class of pleasure boaters.
Pearson made 440 Ariels from 1962 to 1967 (the Noesis is number 109), and almost all of them are still in service.
This Sunday the Long Island Sound was filled with boats; sailing, motoring, fishing
and some so strange, we couldn’t figure out WHAT they were doing.
“It’s the doctor with Ebola coming back to the U.S.” said Jeff.
“I think I like this better than rowing.”
The conversationed turned to various disasters at sea,
and we tried to imagine what a 60 foot wave would look like beside the boat.
It all seemed as distant from our current reality,
as the ghost of New York City, barely visible on the horizon.
The one thing I found disconcerting, and different from being in my shallow row boat, was the issue of submerged rocks.
The area around City Island is notoriously rocky,
and formations like ‘Big Tom’ could rip a hole right through Noesis’ lead keel.
I crawled up to my favorite seat;
the look-out.
There was so much about being aboard the boat with Rich and Pali that reminded me of happy hours spent sailing as a kid.
“When I start sailing, it’s all IÂ want to do.” said Rich.
It was true. Just as we were heading back to the mooring,
Rich turned away. He wanted to show us ‘the melting house’.
Rich described the wrecked boathouse with weird taxidermy deer peering out of abandoned windows,
but the wind wouldn’t let us get too close.
It didn’t seem to be helping us get home either.
We were dead in the water; the doldrums; dead calm. It was actually kind of nice.
We decided to take down the sail,
and motor in.
“I think I like this boat better than the last one.” said Pali.
There was one last trick to perform.
“When we go by that buoy, you have to hook it with the pole,” Pali said. “You only have one chance!”
Jeff grabbed the buoy,
and Pali shuttled us back to shore,
just as the sun set.
We could smell fried food wafting over the water.
“I would have come to City Island just for this!” I said.
Thank you Rich and Pali for a great sailing day!
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