Flux, Flex, and Other

As many of you might know, last year Patty and I went on a vacation with our friends Kurt & Keri and Jeff & Lorna. Sailing around on a captained-and-crewed 44′ catamaran, touring the British Virgin Islands… Check the general idea here.

Well, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do it again this year, so over New Year’s we’re off to the Grenadines. This time we have two boats and 6 couples, which will be awesome!

Just like last time, the 5 week mark turns some sort of mental corner that causes all of us to suddenly lose our minds, begin emailing in pirate speak (ye olde matey’s and stuff like that) and generally start the countdown. In honor of the last trip, I composed an old sea shanty about one day on the boat last time. You should have seen the GPS - it looked like a 2 year old attacked an Etch-A-Sketch.

“Ye Olde Leg’nd o’ Swab Kurt”
(or, “How Dead GPSs Still Tell Tales”)
————————————-

Said Cap’n John to deck-swab Kurt,
“Aye want a nap, so steer me boat!
See that fair isle miles to stern,
Aye want ye mates the boat to turn,
And find yon’ port before I wake,
Or else ye crew shall walk the plank!”

Swab Kurt said “Aye!” and told his wench, “Woman fetch me grog, my thirst to quench!”
And set about selecting crew:
Lorna, Jeff, Todd and Patty too!
“Aye’ll take the helm, ’cause ye are dopes!
Fit not for more than pullin’ ropes…”

S’ Kurt set out upon his plan,
Care’d not fer the safety of woman ner man.
“Prepare ye to tack” he’d growl and sneer, Nay lettin’ his crew enjoy their beer.
It passed this way for many an hour,
Bu’ twen John awoke his mood was sour!

“I left ye here with directions clear!
Go over there from over here!
Ye have created quite a mess!”

And then we all looked at the GPS…

Whar straight a line thar might have shown,
The history of how straight the wind had blown…
Nay thar instead a tangl’ed web,
Show’n tha’ boat — had turned and ebbed,
Buy made nay progress since John departed

…the boat what in th’ same spot that she started!

So let ye scurvy brains abserb yon tale,
What be sailin’ boats ‘er chasin whales.
Rule not ye swabs with iron fist,
Er else ye cap’n might be pissed.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 11:01 am and is filed under extracurricular activities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.