August 17, 2018. Western Head, Nova Scotia. Sailing Away.

All was calm and bright. Mary and Gill sailed Mary's sailboat into the slip, never turning on the motor. The sailing had been lovely with plenty of wind to move the boat along but not so much to make them nervous. The day had been perfect. Mary stepped onto the dock at exactly the same time that a big dog raced down the dock toward her. Mary thought the dog was going to attack her and as he jumped, she dropped the rope to the boat. The sails were still up. Gill was still on the boat and even though Gill has sailed with Mary many times, Mary is the one who knows how to sail the boat. So Gill is sailing away from the dock, hollering to Mary to tell her what to do. This all happened in the twinkling of an eye. I wished I had been there with a video camera. It must have been quite a sight. To make things worse, one of the lines got tangled so before Gill could do anything to right the boat she was forced to untangle the lines. Eventually Gill was able to get the boat turned about and eventually Mary got aboard and sailed the boat to bring it back to the dock. And all was well. After the fact it was funny, but at the time, Gill thought she was heading out to sea all by herself. The sails were up and the boat was ready to sail and it did. But not for long.