Sailing Topless - With a Pedicure???

Editors Note:  If this is like the other post under the "Sailing Topless" title, I expect I'll get a few hits each month over the ensuing years from folks who Googled these two words probably expecting something quite different from the content of this family-oriented sailing blog.  If you are one of those people, please accept my apologies... while I am an accomplished photographer, my wife would literally kill me if I tried to produce the content you seek (though it might be fun briefly before death occurs).  Please understand that for us "Sailing Topless" simply means going out for a day sail without raising our bimini top.  We wish you well in your search.


Now, about that pedicure...

Anyone who's been a parent for a significant amount of time (in my case, 28 years) has had the pleasure of beaming with pride at the quality young man your offspring is becoming...

... and they've probably also had those moments where their inner voice is saying something like "Good God, son, what is happening to your brain?!"

This post is about a weighted average of those two experiences.

First, to set the stage, you need to know that I didn't get to go sailing last weekend.

There was a heat wave with temps in the high 90s, zero wind, and heat indices well above 100.  I knew that Seas The Day would basically be an oven and decided to stay home in Delaware.  It was the same with the Fourth of July holiday.  In fact, the heat pretty much stayed with us for well over a week.

The saving grace was that this weekend looked absolutely gorgeous... temps in the high 70s, low humidity and a nice (if a bit light) breeze of 8 to 10 kts.  I reached out to John early in the week and he was available so it sounded like another father-son sailing trip, though this time with actual sailing involved.

Unfortunately when I reached out to confirm yesterday, I found out John wouldn't be available until 12:30 PM AND that he had a 3:00PM stop time to get to a work event he had to attend.

So that's why we were sailing topless.  With only a brief time to sail, I didn't want to waste time putting up the bimini top.  So shortly after 12:30, we boarded the launch and headed out to Seas The Day.  Once there, we went below to eat a quick lunch, and that's when I found out WHY we couldn't start until 12:30...

My son decided to get a pedicure.

Let me say that clearly:  My... son... decided... to... get... a... pedicure!


Oh, the shame!

My inner voice was not going in a flattering or prideful direction... I expect some of that came out of my outer voice as well.  I remember thinking "You wasted half of the best weekend sailing day in a year for a PEDICURE????"  I vaguely heard something along the lines of "But it was only $20!" as a defense, but really.

There is a legitimate reason for a man to get a pedicure... he is either too fat or too stiff to reach his toes himself.  Yes, I know that I'm getting close on both those accounts, but I'm not there yet.  Neither is John.

His friend, Laura, supplied me with photographic evidence that, no, this was not some sort of hallucination....

So be it... we can try our best to train our children well, but at some point we just have to let them loose and hope that they don't...

... hope...

...

Anyway...

John was an incredible help after lunch when he assisted me in putting swimming noodles on our mooring.  This activated the "beaming with pride" (and thankful) part of my parental brain.

Soon we were underway, going just outside the mooring field and then pulling out the sails for a quick trip out into the bay and back.  You can see that John is starting to become an accomplished sailor and a great help on the boat.  He was ribbing me a few weeks ago that he "hasn't seen the headsail in ages" so we pulled out both sails just so I could prove to him that I still knew how to use it.

As expected, it was an incredible day.  The only thing I could have asked for were a couple more knots of wind (it was a bit light, ranging from 6 to 10 kts).  Well, and it could have lasted longer. ;)

We got him back and everything battened down in time for his work event - with time to spare (after the launch ride back) for the required drink at the KYC bar.

After John headed off to his event, I made the mistake of stopping for dinner locally before driving back down to Delaware.  It put me right on the Delaware Memorial Bridge as the sun started to set.  Talk about sun glare!

Of course when he reads this, John will probably start shaking his head thinking "What has happened to Dad's brain... taking photos while driving?  With SUN GLARE even!"  (Honestly, it seemed important to document at the time.)

I expect as I age, he will have more of those moments.