The concept of being wet takes in a bit of territory. On the coast, you can be “wet from birth,” meaning you grew up on the water. Sometimes I’ve heard people described as just being all wet. The meaning here is that you weren’t smart enough to come in from the damp weather. Sometimes I’ve felt that I’ve been both all at once. I was born a part of a seafaring family and spent my youth growing up helping my Marine Engineer father. But as a sailor in a boat with actual sails, I can’t compete with those “smart as fresh paint” wise guys who’ve owned their sailboats since before puberty. One is not quite the equivalent of the other.
Then, I developed my penchant for carving boats these days rather than sailing them. I had hit the point where scrambling fitfully over centerboard trunks and going forward on heaving foredecks to tend fitful jibs no longer appealed. Knees and hips had aged.
So now I carve and once in a while pontificate on the activities of my peers. I actually may be improving with age, without ever leaving the dock.
I’m glad you had the opportunity to be on the water in so many ways. I was wet for 18 years, and 5 decades later, I’m wet only from humidity and miss that foghorn like a friend.
I agree; being a flatlander now really gets to me sometimes.
I think I’ve reached the age where I want to Captain my small sailboat and let my crew jump around and deal with the jib. That is what my father did. Unfortunately my crew is living in Colorado and Maryland.
Once I went straight from work to the boat to crew to race with my father. I was in a short skirt and tights. Another sailor shouted “How do I get crew like that?” My father shouts back, “Raise them!”
Hmmmm, Short skirt and tights. If it was a race, I’d guess that there might have been a few collisions as other skippers’ crew members became distracted,
Heh, other one was still docked.