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Captain Ron |
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by Ron Thweatt - Hermitage Tennessee - USA
A Little Boat On A Big Lake |
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Last week I was working on a deer hide that I have been making into a “River Bank Rug”. No, I did not shoot a deer. My neighbor told her pastor about my desire to make another deer rug. I came home from church to find a fresh 6-foot (from tail to head) hide. I have been trying to do one each winter. I use the Bucket Process. There are several websites you can look at for the method with the hair on. I love taking these rugs to the lake or river to sit on while I am watching the Grand Kids splash. They are also great just to have in the truck for sitting and watching the sunset.
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I love taking these rugs to the lake or river to sit on while I am watching the Grand Kids splash. They are also great just to have in the truck for sitting and watching the sunset.
(click images for larger views) |
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I also found these are fun to put on the seat of my kayak while paddling in the early spring or winter… it also causes lots of questions from folks that I happen to come upon while paddling.
The hide is dry and now I have been doing the hard part – pounding it with my white rubber mallet. It was a warm day in Nashville and I decided to go to Percy Priest Lake, where the Corps of Engineers has built a great place for sitting, overlooking the lake.
As I was sitting there I was thinking of all the years I spent sailing this lake - 13 years to be exact - I noticed there was a boat under sail coming out of a small shallow cove.
It was not a large boat. Now it always seems strange to me that when there is a Marina with boats ranging in size from 16 to 46 feet and most of them equipped with motors and lush quarters with all the trimmings, they just sit in their slips. Why are they not out sailing? I have found from experience, as I have also been told, “The smaller the boat the more it’s used.”
I did not have my binoculars, I had to use my 56 year old eyes almost to their breaking point to see this was a “Home Made Boat.” I have also come to find home made boats and home made cakes have some thing in common… They may not be perfect, but the cakes seem to taste better and the boats seem to have a soul. I think somehow a little of the maker seems to work its way into each.
The boat I was watching was about 12 feet long with tanbark sails. I could not see what type of boat it was, only that its movement across the water looked like a piece of art.
| The boat I was watching was about 12 feet long with tanbark sails. I could not see what type of boat it was, only that its movement across the water looked like a piece of art. |
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I could see the smile on the skipper’s face, however. I have experienced that smile myself in the very same spot, and even though I was a couple hundred yards away, I just smiled back at the skipper. I imagined the sound of the water as it the boat made its way to windward, and the slight weather helm, along with the small back and forth movement of the tiller in hand, as the water passed around the rudder…
As I sat I found myself very relaxed and noticed I was sitting at a slight slant about 15 degrees God, I miss sailing!
I continued to pound on my hide as the boat sailed up the lake. A young lady had been sitting closer to the water and it just happened I had placed myself so that she would have to walk by me to get to her car. Really, I did not plan it!!!
As she passed she smiled and asked what I was doing? I had another finished hide laying on the ground and I invited her to have a seat.
She also asked if I heard the Indian Flute music? I told her yeah, then I showed her my flute. There was a moment of quite as we each looked out to the lake, “Did you see the little boat?” Yeah, was that not great?
She told of her dream to always sail and never had the chance. I told her it was kind of like eating country ham –“ if you never had the opportunity to, don’t eat it ‘cause you would always have to have it.”
As we talked she told me she was a songwriter. I told her that most people in Nashville are either songwriters, pickers or singers, or at least the ones I know are. She had discovered the same thing. I also added that most are sailors. That was hard for her to understand. Then the big question - if all those boats are at that marina and the day is perfect for sailing, why is there only one boat on the lake?
Even though I was told by my teachers –{ one of the few things I learned in school} - never answer a question with a question, I did, “Why on a perfect winters day, when it is 65 degrees, are you and me the only ones sitting in the sun by the lake?
We chatted some more. And I told her about the building of the lake -how I remember driving over the road down by my Home and sitting there in my 1965 Ford Falcon, watching the water come up to the hubcaps and on my return the next day not seeing the road at all, it was all under water. She smiled and said, “You have seen a lot.” It was then that I realized 56 must seem old to a 25 year old young lady?
I gave her my e-mail address so that I could send her some additional information on sailing, Yeah? That is why I gave it to her? I can hear you now - yeah, yeah, yeah?????
She thanked me for the “history lesson” and as she started to walk away I saw the little boat coming back down the lake. The sun was going down as the boat sailed back in the cove from where it had come. I thought about trying to find the skipper so as to ask to take a look see at his boat. Then I thought, I should leave him alone with his thoughts and his boat. I could in my mind’s eye see him drying her off, unstepping the mast, and just smiling at her in his rearview mirror as he pulled out on the highway.
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This had been a perfect day - I had seen two beautiful ladies move with grace and each had given me something to smile about.
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This had been a perfect day - I had seen two beautiful ladies move with grace and each had given me something to smile about. As I got up and heard my bones crack, I picked up my deer hides and walking stick and walked back to my truck. I pulled out of the parking lot, looked in my rearview mirror. There was no boat in tow, but I rememberd with a smile a time when there was, memory gave me a smile.
May we never loose our love for looking at beauty, whether on or off the water.
And may we never miss the opportunity to stop and look at the sunset, small boats and young women. After all, they all have something in common - they are constantly changing and always bring us a smile!
Yes, my wife has read this… She reminds me the same rule goes with young women and boats – you can look and smile - JUST DON’T BRING THEM HOME!
Happy Spring! Get on the water; Invite some one to go with you; Watch a sunset; and Thank God for all the times we have to enjoy our Love of Boats
Fair winds with just enough puffs to keep you on your toes!
Capt Ron
Anchored in a small harbor in the Un-Cork-A-Islands, just this side of Chain-Linka Some call it Lake Chateau, but I KNOW where I am.
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