Sailing attracts a different demographic, usually better educated and more outdoors oriented. Now and then you run into people who are not only fascinating but selfless. On this day we sailed with a police office, an Army soldier and a hospital nurse.
John Barkas is training at Ft. Eustis in helicopter repair, Blackhawks to be precise. He took his mom and his girlfriend sailing near Williamsburg in light winds. On Memorial Day, a dozen or more boats sailed or motored on the York River.
Karen Barkas is from Quincy, MA. “I’ve been a police officer there for 17 years, currently in PIO. Quincy is the next town north of Boston, yet we don’t have nearly the murder rate of Boston. We also have 21 miles of shoreline on the Atlantic, so we have three police boats. A retired Coast Guard officer runs that operation.”
I mentioned that the York Sheriff is notoriously slow putting out news releases about crimes committed. Sometimes he waits a month, which makes it ridiculous to read, “The suspect had dark pants and shirt.” He probably changed clothes in the meantime.
Karen said, “Maybe they had a suspect and thought they could arrest him, but it didn’t work out. Or they just want to keep the perception up that there isn’t much crime going on.”
John is about to be deployed to Germany for three years to train other how to fix Blackhawks. I admired his mechanical ability. “I’m not mechanical. I have no idea how I got into that. I’m into nursing, actually.”
Amy works in adult oncology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “Some of the patients have leukemia, which comes as a shock. They present in different ways and have no reason to think of leukemia. Once they get over the initial shock of the diagnosis, they are wonderful patients who fight hard.”
All three had a fine time sailing and relaxing. We briefly spotted a pair of dolphins, but all the boat activity scared them away. Amy summed up the experience: “Awesome!”
Semper Fi Sailor
In the afternoon the Mason family of Chattanooga TN went sailing as the light winds got lighter. All of a sudden, the wind shifted from west to north and the air got perceptibly cooler. The wind piped up from the east and we were off to the races in 10 mph winds. It was astonishing.
Marsha Mason was concerned her older son Jake would get sunburned, but he shrugged it off as he gripped the helm while heeling 15 degrees. Jake is going into the Marines shortly to a 13-week boot camp at Parris Island SC. His dad Eric asked if the Marines let them use sunscreen.
“They make you put the entire bottle on and then you have to roll around in the sand. They call it sugar cookies.”
I wondered if the suntan is why Marines are called leathernecks. “No, that comes from leather bands they used to put on to protect them from swords cutting their heads off.”
On this Memorial Day, I was impressed with Jake’s T-shirt, where the word COLLEGE was crossed out for the word ENLISTED instead.
Let’s Go Sail
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