The Watts Line: Floating the boat in style | Columnists | Summerville Journal Scene

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The Watts Line: Floating the boat in style

Published Tuesday, July 06, 2010 2:18 PM

By Judy Watts
Summerville Journal Scene ®

We are now six months into the Great Boat Search. Four days from now we will return to Florida for the fourth time – the goal is to have the last look, the sea-trial. Although the Atlantic City leg of the GBS was fun, it did not end as happily as we’d have liked. So we walked away. We also had walked away in Connecticut and a couple of times in Florida. We even said a difficult adieu to a real possibility in Charleston.

Less than two weeks from now we will return to the site of a boat we considered a possibility earlier but on which we were undecided.

We will bring this one home.

The plan is to sail night and day. And I do say “the plan.” We both are aware that “the plan” is more than likely not going to float.

“We should probably have someone with us that’s done this before,” he told me the other night. He rattled off the names of a few folks we know who have sailed all over the Atlantic.

“Uhhh. Yeah. I think that’s a real good idea,” I answered. The reason we need a professional to go with us is that I know nothing about sailing that would be of any help. I just figured out which side is port and which is starboard. (I’m not sure why we can’t use right and left like normal folks.) And although my guy has done a fair amount of lake and harbor sailing, the big wide ocean is new territory.

“I’d prefer not to make the newspaper,” I said. “I can see the headlines now – Crazy old people lost at sea.”

So in an effort not to be lost at sea, I’ll rely on the Hubster and whomever he chooses as his second to get us from point A to point B.

In the meantime, I have work to do. The Hubster is hunkered down with his computer plotting our route and checking out places we can stop along the way if the need arises, and I’m in the process of making lists of things I will need to provision the boat.

But the good list, the fun list, is the list of things to buy to make it look great inside. My captain is gauging fuel requirements for when the wind isn’t enough, and how many knots this boat travels per hour. I’m measuring mattress sizes and deciding what color sheets I want for the back bedroom – excuse me – aft berth.

So after doing a little online searching I decided it was time to hit the stores. I hauled my guy over to my favorite department store to look at blankets and sheets. I jollied him into being interested and he managed a little enthusiasm. I know the real reason he came along was to be sure I didn’t, in his words, “Sissify the boat too much.”

I assured him that large floral prints were not on my list, and that the color purple was not on the palette of colors I was considering. But he came along to be absolutely sure that I didn’t get off track.

We agreed that plain is best because we are, after all, talking about a small enclosed capsule.

He will deal with figuring out how to get us there.

I will deal with getting us there in style -- or making us look good during our rescue at sea.)

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