Spring = Swimmin' Weather

At least, that's what the kid down the beach seems to think. He and some friends were out sailing this afternoon, a beautiful day for it, maybe 15 knots NW dying to 5-10 as the sun started to go down, nice blue skies and sunshine. They just came back in to pick up the mooring, putting along slowly under mainsail alone and making what looked like a fine, seamanlike approach to the ball.

When they got to within about five feet, suddenly he launches himself off the bow toward the dinghy that is tied up there... and splashes down right on top of the pendant.

Unless global warming kicked in suddenly, that water is still down at its typical winter-time temperature of around fifty degrees. Maybe I'm just getting old, but that seems COLD. But the thing is, I'm not sure that he didn't mean to hit the water. It wasn't like they were going to miss the mooring, and I don't think anyone could have mis-judged and missed the dink at that range, even if they were really thinking that a leap into an inflatable dinghy was going to end well in the first place. I kind of think he was jumping for the pendant, but hey, maybe it was just for fun. It is spring, after all. Must be swimmin' weather.

The rest of the crew hauled up the pendant, made the mooring, and hauled him back aboard without missing a beat.