BLOODY TUESDAY

“Although the author if indeed he even used his real name) calls this story fiction, we arent so sure. You be the judge. Eds

- Tom Parker

The interesting part of this yarn is how it ends, so I’ll be brief with the back story. Details are taken almost verbatim from cryptic log entries jotted down at the halfway point of the voyage, which included lunch.

We arrived at the boat ramp just before dawn. Rigged the SeaPearl 21 in the usual half hour and loaded the forward hold with what we’d need for lunch at the island. Included was a small charcoal cooker, charcoal, the kitchen kit, and finally a cooler with all food and drink items for a two-person lunch. The centerpiece of the food assortment was a pound of organic ground sirloin, vine-ripe tomatoes, onions to slice, buns and all the trimmings, with a bottle of decent red wine. My wife and I planned this for weeks because we both saw it as a celebration of ten reasonably beautiful years of marriage.

We launched, parked the truck and trailer in the lot, and shoved off shortly after 6 AMOur favorite island is 6 miles and about 5 hours up the lake to the south. The wind was variable, averaging 10 knots—perfect sailing conditions. It was hot, but mercifully overcast, and forecasters predicted the haze would clear mid-morning. With the early breeze, and a single-tack reach most of the way, our ETA was somewhere around 1 l am As the morning progressed, the haze did clear, leaving us with bright morning sun on our backs while the day was relatively cool. Very nice. Arrived at the island at 11:20 a.m. and beached the Pearl on the island’s only tiny beach clean sand; no traffic on weekdays). Made a nice little camp, started the charcoal, set up the small camp table. Wow! This is what SeaPearls were designed to do! It wasn’t epic, but we were alone on a nice beach.