Like lightning

Lightning sailboats are 19-feet long.  I was having lunch with a friend and the conversation somehow got around to my former boat.  My friend doesn't like the water, so she wouldn't go out with me even if I still had that boat.  But our lunch-time chatter became a search on this blog to see if I'd ever written about it.  We named our sailboat Blue Streak.  Can you guess why?  Well, yes, lightning, but also because we talked a blue streak before deciding to get it.

I used to launch that boat into the waters of Lake Chickamauga, which was formed by Chickamauga Dam across the Tennessee River.  We sailed in and out of Privateer Yacht Club, back in the day.  I went out on the water with family, not to race other boats, but this was the best picture I could find online.

Though I'm sitting here in my easy chair with my computer on my lap, I can still feel the breeze blowing through my hair and the wind tipping the boat with its power.  Passengers (uhm, crew) have to lean off the other side to help keep the boat upright.  "Hey, kids, hold on tight!  Wheeee!"

I learned about furling (and unfurling) sails, how to sail into the wind, and how to tow that big boat behind my station wagon.  Because we were on a major waterway, we also had to constantly watch out for bigger boats, like barges heading towards the lock at the dam.  We especially had to watch for speedboats racing each other, often unaware that a sailboat cannot dart out of their way.

"Don't rock the boat" comes to mind, as those racing speedboats would leave a wake that actually did rock our boat.  It also "knocked the wind out of our sails."  Are you familiar with those nautical-sounding terms?

• If you rock the boat, you do or say something that will upset people or cause problems.
• If you knock the wind out of someone's sails, you cause that person to lose confidence in what they were saying or doing.