One of the joys of being in an outside slip in our marina is that we can sit in the cockpit and watch the parade of boats going up and down the creek. On a beautiful holiday weekend like this one there's a steady line of everything from kayaks and sailing dinghies to big gleaming cruisers to the graceful charter schooners the Woodwind and Woodwind II. Early this morning we watched a medium size sailboat that seemed to be floundering around in circles, finally we realized they had a skipper on board, were probably relatively new, and were practicing docking to get the feel of their boat (good for them!). I'm intrigued with the range of names, some very self-important, and some more light-hearted. There were a whole batch of puns, such as "Fanta-sea" and "Seas the Day" and "Sea-duction."
I was particularly taken by one group of names. You can just imagine these are designed to allow a secretary to tell the literal truth when fielding calls for a boss who's playing hooky from the office. There are two different sailboats here called "A Sales Call" (Sails Call). Can't you just hear it? "I'm sorry, Dr Jones can't come to the phone right now, he's on A Sales Call, I'm expecting him back late this afternoon." There must be a lot of truth-telling secretaries and receptionists here, because in the same vein, I've also seen boats named "The Other Line" (with a picture of a telephone as their logo), "In Surgery," "Field Office," and my new favorite, "O-fish-ial Business."
Ghost Town to Boom Town
2 months ago
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