A Sailing Incident

 Imagine That!

Books say that a sailboat with no one at the helm will sail in circles. But there was my boat headed straight towards Nova Scotia while I bobbed in the chilly water a few miles off shore from Rockport, Massachusetts.

A few moments earlier I had been sitting on the transom tinkering with the outboard engine while the sails flapped idly in the breeze. I suddenly became aware of music growing louder and louder. I looked up and saw a trawler, pulling lobster pots, approaching me. To be sure to be out of its way, I pulled in the main sail and pulled the tiller toward me. The breeze caught the sail, the boat jibed, and the boom swept me off the transom and into the water.

Although I was glad I never sailed alone without wearing a life jacket, I wondered whether it was going to do me any good. Both my boat and the trawler were moving away from me faster than I could move. It seemed likely I would be incapacitated by hypothermia long before I could swim to shore. Could I scream loudly enough to attract the attention of the lobsterman over the sound of his radio? Fortunately, the answer was "yes". After considerable screaming and waving my arms he noticed me and backed up his boat toward me. I scrambled over the stern and lay on the deck for a while catching my breath. Then he kindly agreed to chase down my boat, still following its straight-as-an-arrow course. I clambered aboard and sailed home, wet and chilled, but safe. I have never again sailed solo without being attached to the boat, but I have never been able to duplicate the straight-line performance of the boat with my hands off the tiller.

Imagine that!

Written as an assignment for the writers' group at The Fountains in June 2014.  The assignment was to start and end with the phrase "Imagine That!".