Friday, July 13, 2007

Spooky.

A most disconcerting scene to come upon on a dark, quiet night in Jamaica Bay.

No idea what happened. Spooky looking, though. We saw the rightside-up boat first, I spotted it first, just saw reflections off the glass, we thought it was just somebody anchored with no anchor lights - then, coming back, we were passing closer - at first we thought they'd run aground on a hummock, but as we got closer we saw the bowsprit & what we'd seen as a weirdly-placed hummock of sand suddenly resolved itself into the curve of a turtled hull. The anonymity of the better-off one just made it even weirder - no registration numbers, no name on the transom, just anonymous white speedboat. Weird.


We had a much better trip than these guys. Gorgeous night; perfect temperature, water like glass, fireworks far away, and a falling star; so quiet that when I stopped paddling to wait for the guys (I was on my surfski, was letting Phillipe try my Romany, while Chalu was in another boat he had the owner's permission to borrow), I could hear the swish of the black skimmers' beaks as they sliced through the water while fishing near my boat.

We set out with no particular destination...

"Well, tomorrow is a work day, we should probably head back."

5 minutes later -

"Hey, you wanna go around Canarsie Pol instead of straight back?"

"Yes".

Around we went.

At the far end, directly across the channel from the Paerdegat -

"Wanna go to Floyd Bennett Field?"

"Yes".

Think we did about 10 miles in the end.

Planlessness can be a fine thing under the right conditions, when you're out with the right people.

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