Friday The 13th Cruise

 DOES MY HUSBAND LOOK WORRIED? Maybe he sensed that today we were going to have a Friday the Thirteenth boating adventure.


It started off innocently enough. Our condo neighbors have a boat. Lucky them! (I've been hankering for a boat.) He’d had shoulder surgery and needed someone to run the boat for him. (Lucky us!) The weather was supposed to be great. We all set the date for Friday.
On Friday at noon we walked to the marina, armed with the necessities of life: pop, pretzels, and oranges (and an egg for Sheila, who was determined to stick to her diet.) We did our pre-cruise check and Captain Gerhardt settled in behind the wheel. The engine started right up. Sounded a little sickly but, not letting a little thing like that stop us, we began to putt-putt our way out of the marina. Two minutes later the engine putt-putted to a stop and we wound up drifting into a slip, an unwelcome third between two other boats. Thank heaven they were small!
And, thank heaven for Bryce the boat detailer who saw our dilemma and helped us tie up and work on the engine. And work on the engine. And work on the engine. At this point I turned to my husband and said, “Maybe I don’t want a boat.”
At last it was time to give up. Fortunately, a nice man in his bilge pump boat came over and towed us back to our slip, while we hummed the theme from GILLIGAN’S ISLAND. As we limped back someone remembered that it was Friday the Thirteenth. Well, that explained it.
Anyway, it was quite the adventure and, in spite of our technical difficulties we had fun. Because when you’re with nice people you can always have fun no matter what. So, many thanks to our hosts. And, better luck next time. (We’ll be sure to check the calendar before we take out the boat!)