I think when people are married for a long time, they develop weird speech habits like finishing each other’s sentences, blurting out the same thought simultaneously, and knowing in advance what someone is going to say.
Boaters who are together 24/7 in close proximity do this regularly and even develop their own language. Sometimes its clear and other times it’s not.
“Mosquito on your tail.”
“How big?”
“Big enough to bite if its fast.”
Pause.
“Hang on. Ouch!”
(Translation: fast little fishing skiff has just zoomed by and left us rocking in his wake.)
“Could you change the page on the chart?”
“Can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because your thingy is on it.”
“Take my thingy off and lay it on the next page.”
“Well, all right.”
(Translation: post-it marking our location on the chart is a thingy)
“Is the next channel marker red or green?”
“Red.”
“Are you sure? I don’t see it.”
“It’s there.”
“Where?”
“There.” Pointing.
“Two fingers to the right of the bow? Three points off the starboard quarter? Where.”
“There.” Pointing frantically.
(Translation: channel markers are red triangles or green squares on posts with numbers and will eventually come into view)
And my favorite.
“We have an orange.” Smiling.
“Huh?”
“An orange.”
“In the refrigerator?”
“No. In the head.”
(Translation: color indicators on a Nordic Tug tell you how full your wastewater holding tank is. Our indicators didn’t work until the tank went past the halfway mark…the color for that is bright orange on a light panel.) Green was for empty; yellow for almost at the half. Orange was for almost full, and red, was “you better find a pump-out station fast.” The day ours started working properly was a relief.
Sometimes you just KNOW what to do, even when the words don’t come out of the mouth. We once crewed with a sailboat racing skipper who did this:
“On the count of three, I want to tack.”
“Okay.”
“Tack!”
“Wait. What happened to the count?”
“Tack. Tack.”
(Translation: change direction by drawing the jib and mainsail to the other side of the boat.)
Mark and I got along very well on the 2015 trip until Cape May. But that is a story for a few weeks from now.
After we left Charleston we cruised along the Intracoastal through South Carolina, North Carolina, and into Virgina. I’ll catch you up next Friday.
Reminder: You can see any you missed at www.pamelagibsonwrites.com under blog.