6614-R1_CIC_August2019_Calendar_Web

Marty’s Memories - Heat by Marty Trower

This rare and uncomfortable heat that has landed in our midst makes me want to cancel all plans for anything other than being still. It does bring me back to a time in the late ‘60s when I tried to do something about it, with disastrous results. I was on our sailboat, Kachina , with my parents and a boyfriend from northern, inland Maine. There was no wind and we sat yawing and drifting and baking. I had no patience for it. I was wearing my tiny hot pink bikini, but it was still too much clothing. I asked my parents if they would mind if I just slipped overboard into the cold water for a few minutes of relief. Absolutely not, they said. I had no idea how fast the boat was moving, they said, even though it seemed we were completely still. I wanted that wet, cool temperature of the ocean so badly I suggested many ways to make it a safe dunking. One was that I could wear a life preserver. No, my father said, it would get wet with saltwater and would never dry out. No other ideas met with their approval until finally they agreed to let me hold on to a rope that was tied to the cleat on the stern of the boat.

call out to the crew on the boat that I’d changed my mind, I was cool now, and I wanted to get back up on the boat. They couldn’t hear me; my words were garbled by the huge amount of salt water being forced into my mouth by the of the wake of the boat. Finally, my boyfriend seemed to understand and started trying to haul me back in. I could see his blurry image, his face concerned, his arms pulling on the lifeline I clung to with real fear. My parents were oblivious, looking straight ahead, tending to the tiller and lines. To my horror, I realized that the force of the water had pulled down my bathing suit bottom. It was down around my ankles and I had to let go of the rope with one hand so I could grab it. The top of the bathing suit then filled with water from the force of the pull of the boat and I was in danger of losing the entire thing. Luckily, the young man was fit and strong and got me to the side of the hull where I reassembled my bathing suit back onto my body and realized my parents had seen none of the fiasco. I had to tell them that they were right, the boat was going faster that I thought it was and I probably would not choose this way to cool off again.

The minute I hit the water, it was like whiplash, the boat took off like a rocket and it was all I could do to hang on to the rope. I tried to

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AUGUST 2019 CHEBEAGUE ISLAND COUNCIL CALENDAR