Monday, June 09, 2008

First Date

She's been sitting on the shelf for several months as I just hadn't felt it was the right time yet to take her out. However, last week I decided to take the plunge and start a relationship with her but only on special occasions for a while.

Dressed in some nifty new red and black numbers she looked ready for action. I was excited to be giving her a whirl. After all she's never been rigged before and I was about to take her out for her first ride around the bay.

There are some rules for the first date. I'm not quite sure where they come from but current etiquette has it that you don't want to get your vang too tight and it's not a good idea to yank too hard on the downhaul in the first couple of hours. Something about letting her relax on your first encounter so that she will be in better shape on future outings. Apparently it does wonders for her performance over the long term.

So that's what we did. On Friday evening I took her over to one of my favorite spots in the East Bay where I've had some success before. She looked crisp and white and so young, with not a wrinkle in sight. Made her predecessor look old and tired by comparison.

We took it gently to start with but, at least on my part, it was love at first sight. She seemed a bit longer in the luff than her immediate predecessor; I'm a sucker for long luffs. Her bottom had a perfect curve, not too full, just a perfect shape. Her leech was nice and tight as it should be. Not a flutter in sight (except in my heart.)

I tried some gentle beating and I was surprised by how well she responded. But mostly I reached around a bit and that was the most exciting part of the evening for me. Man, she seems fast.

I haven't been block-to-block with her yet but I suspect that is a definite possibility the next time we go out. I'm planning a special trip for our next date when I am looking forward to showing her off to some of my old friends.

3 comments:

David said...

Very amusing. Reminds me of A.L. Lloyd's "While Cruising 'Round Yarmouth"

Tillerman said...

Thanks Dave. I haven't heard that song before but I'll post the lyrics.

David said...

Yep, that's it. That's one of my favorites from "Blow Boys Blow". Plenty of other great shanties on that disk--highly recommended.

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