When we were guests of the Fremantle Sailing Club, I awoke feeling a bit old this particular morning. Too much booze or one too many stories the night before had me feeling every one of my sixty-four years and I was crawling rather lethargically round the cabin when I heard a rap on our railing. Coming up my eyes clasped onto a man my age inspecting my boat.
“Bonny wee sailing ship you have laddie,” were his first words, and I smiled. I love people who like my boat. And replied, “She’s stout and looks after you in a storm and that’s what matters, plus she’s a treat to live aboard.”
“Aye, I can see that”, this fellow went on, his bushy eyebrows going up and down as he ran his eye over our craft.
“You’re a Scots, I can tell. My wife’s a Geordie.” And with that disclosure, he ambled closer.
“Aye, a bonny lad from the old country.” He said when we were eyeball to eyeball.
“Been back lately?” I asked, thinking of our own trip home to England in 1999.
“Aye, went back in 2005.”
“Good flight?”
“Did nay fly, I sailed.”
“You sailed back to Scotland!” I exclaimed suddenly reassess this man. I had been more concerned with my own problems that morning as we’d been meeting so many full of dreams and claims.
Curious I asked, “Did you do the Red Sea and canal.” Thinking what a silly question, but having twice traversed the Red Sea, thought I’d hear the latest.
But what I next heard wiped away every remaining concern for my aging. (READ MORE)
True Stories from Faraway
by Cap’n Jack
Tweaked by Jude
Our most popular short stories are now in print with a swag from our early years when sailing with our sons, plus two not told before, African Honeymoon and Malpelo Lessons. Read more on Reflections