You can read all the books you want, but until a water taxi beaches itself on top of your anchor line while you’re plying with your dog on the shore, you just don’t know what to do in that situation. One of my sailing teachers used to say that sailing ability is a mixture of training and EXPERIENCE. Emphasis on the experience. Finally, I’m starting to understand what he meant

Yes. This did happen to me.

I was sitting on the beach next to the PTown light house after a quick sailing trip with my wife, aunt, uncle, cousin, cousin, and dog, Tracy, Natasha, Ken, Cora, Cali, and Max. When the water taxi pulled back out, guess what. Our boat was soon sailing with no one on board!

I did the only thing that seemed to make sense. I took off down the beach, dove in, and swam after it. It’s a good thing it wasn’t moving any faster or I wouldn’t have made it. I was barely able to grab hold of the stern and drag my self on board.

When I looked up, the entire beach was watching. At first I was touched by their empathy for my struggle. Then I realized why they were really starting. In the frenzy, my dog max decided to help out and had swam out with me. When he finally made it to the boat and I scooped him up on board, he was greeted with a round of applause from the onlookers.

I have such a great dog. Max would jump off cliff with me if I asked him to.

It’s a good thing Ken was there to help get the boat back under control, or we would have been in a pretty tight spot. Lesson learned? If you anchor your boat in the sand, keep a close eye on it.

Photography by virtualphotographers