Chick Sail

by Lee S. Wilbur

“It sounded like such a great deal.” Gina said, “Thirty-five dollars for a four-hour sail, soft drinks included and we could bring our own wine or beer.”

Gina’s sister, Robin, was there on vacation for the week. Weather had been squirrelly in warm country, to say the least, this winter. They’d only had a day and part of another when sun was out and beach was inviting. Rest of the time had been spent doing some looky-feely girl shopping and hanging out in the local tiki bars trying to catch up on two years of not seeing each other. They’d enjoyed each others company, but the week was lacking in any real adventure, the kind they could look back and say “Oh yeah, that was the year…” An afternoon of sailing with a grey-bearded, wind and sun burned salt named Captain Slim they’d met in a wine Bistro and his 30' sloop sounded like great fun and the capstone of their week together.

Date was settled for the next day at noon provided the weather agreed, which it did not. Rained and blew like stink. So, they settled for another interlude at the wine bar listening to Capt. Slim and more tales of Carribbean years interspersed with his take on tomorrow’s weather forecast. “Wind will be a bit brisk, coming from the north as this front blows through. Should drop by noon though, and then we can have a good “schoon.”

“He was right about the wind,” Robin said, “It was blowing hard, cold, and dark. Maybe it was from the north. Who the Hell knows. But, a phone call to Mr. Slim assured us it would be better by noon and might even see the sun poking out.”

“We got to the marina at noon,” Gina says, interrupting, “He welcomes us aboard. We sit down. He hands us two plastic cups for our wine and we leave the creek. Gives us no instructions for emergencies as we power on down the waterway and turn the corner to head out through the pass. We immediately start to get into the “rock n’ roll thing. Only other people out here are two kids with Ski-Doos. I’m thinking, I don’t even know where the life jackets are. I really don’t even know Capt. Slim. He hasn’t given us any instructions except to sit down and enjoy the trip!!”

“And then we look out the pass… We should have taken two Dramamine.”

Gina takes over again, “We’re hanging on to anything we can find. Sliding off seats, trying not to lose the cushions. Robin hits her shoulder on the boom as it comes loose, and all the time Capt. Slim is trying to keep us in this narrow channel and there’s spray and water coming over the bow. We’re getting soaked. It’s the closest I ever wanted to bull riding.”

Robin breaks in, “And old Slim there, he says in kind of a gritty way, ‘it is a bit choppy, isn’t it’ as we get out of the pass far enough for him to head into the wind and put up the mainsail.”

“Boat is bobbing all over the place as he finally gets the main up. We were afraid he was going overboard a couple of times when he slipped, but he finally got the boat under control though the main still made some pretty violent snaps.”

“Oh my God,” Gina shrieks, “Then he decides he’s going to put up the jib. And we’re heeling over one way and the wind or the boat, I don’t remember which, wheels around and we’re falling all over the cockpit. The fun part was disappearing fast.”

“Yeah,” says Robin, “Then he says to us in kind of an apologetic voice, ‘Maybe we shouldn’t be out here, do you mind if we go back in, I won’t charge you anything’. We say nothing, just nod our heads. He goes up to the foredeck again.”

“No life jacket, we didn’t even have life jackets on. I’m wondering if those kids with the Ski-Doos will rescue us!!”

“So,” Robin continues, laughing, “So then when he’s taking down the jib, he gets the jibline wrapped around the main sail line so tight he has to cut the jib line.”

“And we’re still going up the coast” Gina breaks in again, “And I’m thinking, Thank God there’s sand beach in there!!”

“Finally, Mr. Slim gets us turned around, and we go racing and pounding back to the pass and just about flip coming around the buoy when he turns on the engine and we do the bull ride through the rips again. Then Gina mentions to him as cool as she could, ‘We’re not moving.’ We’d run aground!”

“I really think I saw him give a big sigh of relief when we finally get back in the waterway,” Gina says, “So we open our bottle of wine, he gives us new cups ‘cause the other ones had gone overboard and we’d no more than sat back in our seats when Robin says, ‘I smell something burning.’ So did I and so did Capt. Slim. The engine was on fire!!”

“So Capt. Slim gets the fire out. We’re just watching with our eyeballs hanging out by now,” Robin says, as he puts the main sail up again and Gina holds the tiller while he jury rigs some lines on the jib. Now we’ve got to sail not only up the waterway, but up the creek to the marina as well and that was really narrow.”

“Then, he sails right past the marina, and we run aground again. Somehow he managed to wobble the sails to get us free then sail back to the nearby slip. We could have kneeled down and kissed the slip, but we didn’t. He had to fix the engine before he could take a party of six out the next day and we didn’t want to embarrass him again. We tried to pay him something but he wouldn’t hear of it and we won’t soon forget the “Chick Sail of 2013.”

This is one of Gina’s favorite recipes and I agreed to share it with you for she and Robin telling the story. Oh, and by the way, the names were changed to protect the guilty.

* R E C I P E *

 

Sea Scallops with Lemon and Dill Sauce

1 lb. Sea Scallops

Flour, salt and pepper for dredging

Zest of one whole lemon

1 and half tsp. Dill Weed

3+ T. olive oil

2 T butter

Half cup white wine

Cut scallops in half across grain, dredge in salt, pepper, and flour mix. Heat oil and one T. of butter and cook scallops until light brown and cooked. Check with a fork. Transfer to warm dish. Wipe most of the browned flour and oil out of the pan. On high heat, add the wine, dill, and lemon zest. Reduce by 2/3. Add the remaining butter, remove from burner and when the butter has melted, spoon sauce over scallops.