The following are phrases we expect to use frequently in the future:
"Hard a'lee!"
"Hoist the mains'l!"
"Steady as she goes!"
"Right Full Rudder!"
"Thar she blows!"
"Iceberg Dead Ahead!"
"Argg!"
Avast Ye!
What landlubber among us is not in love with the idea of sailing, a vision of a graceful yacht headed into an open ocean of exotic places and adventures? Not all of us fall in love with sailing, but I suspect a good many, like me, are enamored with the idea of sailing.
And so we embark on Phase I: Obtain a sailboat big enough to spend a weekend comfortably on the timid waters of TVA's impoundments, learning to sail and dreaming of larger boats and bigger adventures to come.
The boat is the Possible Mallard, a 1984 Hunter 25.5, one of the larger water craft ever christened into the Ling fleet. She may be a Chevy instead of a Saab, but she's fast in light air. We keep her at Sale Creek Marina. And believe it or not, we won the very first race at Sale Creek that we ever entered. Beginner's luck? Not at all--we had a big red sail almost as long as the boat pulling us away from the pack.
Many people--okay, everyone we've asked so far--do not seem to understand the meaning of the name Possible Mallard. However, no one was able to offer a better suggestion. Since then, and following our race victory, I think we should have named the boat Rue the Day. The name alone should be enough to frighten off future competitors, not mention dockhands.
She's not as big as we would like you to believe. However, the Mallard does need four and half feet of water to float, so running aground (a Ling tradition) should be easy.
Now that we have read some books from the library and are expert sailors, we expect to have many adventures.
Unfortunately, none of the sailing books have contained any reference to the phrase, "Avast ye!"
