Day on the water

Last August, my partner, my dad and I took one last sail before I left Maine for Milwaukee. My dad has a great boat, Ruach, a 32 foot Pearson Vanguard – beautiful, with a heavy fiberglass hull, the boat is a tank designed to handle the roughest seas. It was a beautiful day on Casco Bay – 75 degrees, sunny, with a light wind out of the south east. We sailed through Whitehead passage and past Ram Island and Ram Island Ledge Light. We saw some White-sided Atlantic dolphins. We traveled down to Halfway Rock and then looped back behind Long Island. We dropped anchor at Little Chebeague and ate lunch. We sat reading for a bit and then I took a swim.

It was a bit choppy on the sail back to the island, the breeze had picked up a bit. After we arrived at the mooring, Dad and Jason covered the sail while I headed below deck to close up and change out of my swimsuit. I came back above board to find them loading the dinghy for the trip to shore. I hopped aboard first as I was to row. Then Jason, who sits in the stern came aboard. I turned the dinghy to make it easier for dad to climb in the bow. As he was descending the ladder from Ruach, his wallet slipped out of his jeans pocket. I reached for it, and in so doing, I knocked it into the water.

“Damn!” I exclaimed. Dad jumped into the dinghy and we all peered over the side to watch his wallet settle slowly into a bare patch of exposed sand between beds of eel grass. The water was only about 15 feet deep but the tide was on its way in, so we needed to act fast.

“I’ll go in for it,” I said, “Let me put my suit back on.”

I grabbed my bag, climbed back aboard Ruach, and changed quickly into my damp bathing suit.

“Islander, come here and look at this!” Jason called from the dinghy. I jumped down and looked into the water to see the strangest thing. There were 2 large carp on the bottom examining the wallet. As we watched, a third carp arrived. Then, to our surprise, one of the fish began to nudge the wallet with what would be its nose if it had a nose. Before we knew it, the carp were batting the wallet from fish to fish in what looked like some crazy game of aquatic volleyball.

“Well,” said may dad with a bemused look at Jason and me, “who would have ever thought that there is such a thing carp to carp walleting?”