Yep, he bought a boat. A 27' sailboat. Because he loves himself and what better way to spend Valentine's Day than doing some hardcore self love.
I went on the boat the day I got home, and I totally get why he fell for Gypsy – the map table. Sure, the big windows and spacious entry to the cabin and all the nooks and crannies that are like surprise treasures when you find them are cool, but that map table... it just makes you feel like having a peg leg and gravel in your throat would be pretty awesome.
A guy was living on the boat when we took ownership of her, but he got out on Friday and we spent every day this past weekend loving that boat. Mack replaced the bilge while I scrubbed every inch of her.
When we weren't on the boat, there was an undercurrent of "boat, boat, boat, boat" running through our heads. I went to Target for Magic Erasers and $200 later Gypsy got new dishes and towels. Then I went to Joann's Fabrics armed with 50% off coupons and $350 later Gypsy's cushions are getting a much needed facelift. I'm even learning how to sew piping for this girl, thanks to help from my mom, who has also met and approves of Gypsy.
I was perfectly content just to play house, but Mack was all, "We need to get this baby out, see how she handles." We were so anxious and excited about taking her out to sea we didn't really think things through. We barely knew how to get the motor in the water, we sort of knew the sails worked, and we kind of remembered how to get out of the slip. Even with these knowledge gaps, we managed to get out of the marina and into the open water with the sail up. Where we took deep breaths and remembered how awesome sailing is.
About 2 minutes in, someone came over the radio saying, "Clear the area. Gunnery testing. Latitudes 'RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE.' Expect to be annihilated and arrested if you don't turn back now." Okay, I'm not sure if those were the exact words, but the gist was they were shooting things and we weren't sure if they were talking to us. Mack was like, "It's a great day and there's no other boats out, so maybe they are talking to us." And I was like, "No way. They'd never be testing guns this close to the marina and the beach." And then he was like, "Let's get the hell out of here. Drop the sails. I'm motoring in!" And I was like, "Shit! I don't know if I know how. Oh god, I'm going to puke if I don't only look at the sea. We're going to die!" And he was like, "Don't take that tone with me!" And it was terrible and scary and then we were back in the marina, laughing at how stupid we'd been and learning our lesson that we need to freshen up our skills and our radio knowledge.
Just as our heart rates were returning to normal, we turned port to head toward our slip. The wind was at our back, and as we approached our slip, we were going faster than either of us had ever practiced. I told Mack to throw it in reverse to slow us down, but it didn't slow us down. He yelled for me to come steer, I held the tiller and tried to remember that you point it in the opposite direction you want to go and he fiddled with the motor. Then he took the tiller and I revved the reverse and the motor popped OUT OF THE WATER! Luckily, there were some Filipino fishermen on the dock who saw us losing our shit and Mack yelled at them, "Can you help? I've lost control! I'm going to hit the rocks!!" I ran to the front of the boat, swung myself off the railing and onto the dock, and held the boat there. The saviors attached a line to Gypsy, and we dock hopped her back to her slip, coming within inches of hitting other boats but somehow managing to miss them.
When we got her tied up, I laid on the dock and died for a couple minutes.
It turns out that docking the boat with the wind at your back is pretty much the hardest thing you can do in the world. Mack spent last night watching videos and reading other people's horror stories, and we felt some relief that we are not retarded and it happens to everyone at some point. After you experience it, you learn to worry less about your speed and more about getting the nose of the boat in the slip.
I have a feeling this is just the start of the things we're going to learn from this relationship with Gypsy. That woman is a handful.
