| It has been almost 40 years since I first | | | | having caught, and released, a huge shark. |
| sailed a canoe, and now is the time to share | | | | Well, so the story went. |
| the experience. | | | | |
| | | | The next day we headed home. As we broke |
| I was with my Boy Scout troop out of Miami. | | | | camp, I noted the wind was in just the right |
| We went for a canoeing trip into the 10,000 | | | | direction. Having sailed a little on my Uncle |
| Islands area of Florida, a place where the | | | | Carl's boat I had a little familiarity with |
| land and sea fight for preeminence over the | | | | the whys and wherefores of sailing. Not much, |
| very southern tip of the state. | | | | mind you, but it was that little bit of |
| | | | knowledge that engendered the idea-sail-don't |
| We paddled a mélange of canoes out to an | | | | paddle. I convinced my tent mate (smaller |
| island, maybe just a couple three miles or | | | | than me) that this was the way to go. We |
| so. We made camp on ground barely above the | | | | lashed two sticks-probably two tent |
| high water mark, scattered with coral and | | | | poles-together, square-rigged, and tied to |
| transient soil. Plants consisted mostly of | | | | them an Army poncho. We lashed the mast to |
| sea grape and whatever weedy stuff grows in | | | | the forward thwart and he would have to act |
| such inhospitable conditions good only for | | | | as the step to keep it vertical. |
| crabs, mosquitoes and the ubiquitous sand | | | | |
| fleas. | | | | With steering paddle in hand, (now, I'd never |
| | | | seen this before, only surmised it) we left |
| By that age I had pretty much reached the | | | | the beach, hell-bent for leather. Well, not |
| point where I was too independent to be a | | | | right away. For awhile we sailed while others |
| Scout anymore and this would prove to be my | | | | paddled ahead of us. They laughed. I knew |
| last trip hanging off the umbilical of a | | | | better. Tentmate/mast step complained that |
| Scout Master, especially one who (in my | | | | we'd get in trouble. I assured him we were |
| youthfully arrogant thinking) was better off | | | | being good Scouts and told him to stop |
| sitting in front of the tube watching a | | | | bawling and just hang on. |
| Dolphins game than trying to lead a hardened | | | | |
| outdoorsman like myself. I had already spent | | | | Then…we got wind…. |
| many days in the Everglades and practically | | | | |
| lived in the drained-swamp pine barrens | | | | It wasn't much, but we started accelerating, |
| surrounding our southern Dade County home by | | | | leaving the paddlers behind. He held on for |
| then. (Within a couple years of this trip I | | | | dear life, I held onto the paddle and |
| would find myself held by the foot by trap in | | | | steered. |
| alligator-infested, chest-deep water in the | | | | |
| Big Cypress Swamp; but that's another story.) | | | | Wow. |
| | | | |
| During one of the many lulls in the camp | | | | The flapping poncho filled and tightened as |
| action, I took off with the canoe assigned to | | | | the wind picked up. The sound of water |
| me and my tent mate, a Grumman, if memory | | | | rushing over tin and rivets increased as the |
| serves; aluminum, for sure. Packing a | | | | mast step got louder in his complaints. We |
| spinning rod and a mullet gig, I went in | | | | were leaving a wake...the paddlers fell |
| search of adventure, and maybe some fresh | | | | behind. I heard not a word from Scout Master, |
| fish for dinner. After sticking myself a | | | | who was probably aghast at the site of two of |
| black mullet and baiting a hook, I settled | | | | his young troops showing him up in such an |
| down in the bottom of the canoe in my usual | | | | obvious (and plainly heroic) manner. |
| repose: horizontal-napping. After a bit, I | | | | |
| had a strike. Shark! It pulled hard and began | | | | I guess we beat the rest of the Troop by |
| swimming to deeper water with a tin canoe and | | | | close to an hour. Tentmate was scared we'd be |
| teenager attached. I hung on and adjusted my | | | | in trouble and he complained about being held |
| rod angle so the boat would stay inline with | | | | hostage and I reminded him he wasn't a |
| the fish, knowing a broach would be uncalled | | | | hostage, but Pressed, like the British did to |
| for when a shark is on the line. | | | | American sailors, and should be proud he was |
| | | | part of a grand adventure. |
| He pulled. | | | | |
| | | | Scout Master was mad we'd left the others |
| I pulled. | | | | behind and castigated me for being |
| | | | irresponsible and what would have happened if |
| He pulled harder. | | | | we wrecked and all I could think was he was |
| | | | better off living indoors with others of his |
| I hung on, (harder). | | | | kind and he was red in the face and I was |
| | | | sure it was because he was shown up by a boy |
| And then the line parted, but not after he | | | | not yet old enough to drive who was twice, |
| pulled me and canoe into open water. | | | | no-thrice-the outdoorsman he'd ever be. |
| | | | |
| How cool. | | | | And, that, my friends, is how I came to sail |
| | | | a canoe the very first time...and things |
| I paddled back to camp with an air of success | | | | haven't been "right" since...LOL! |