Tom Dryja and MeI’ve had one challenge after another this week, so when I showed up on Friday at the Berkeley Marina with two bottles of champagne to celebrate the “splash” of our Santa Cruz 27, I did so with some apprehension.
I bought Solana in March, and after some maintenance, the boat was set to go into the water yesterday morning.
As luck would have it, there was a delay, and I was able to have breakfast with Andrew, and Tom Dryja.
Tom, an instructor at The Olympic Circle Sailing Club, taught me to sail two years ago, along with Bruce Reeves. These are days that I now remember fondly.
After breakfast, Tom and I waited in my truck, while they started up the giant crane used to pick up the boat, and I confessed that I was feeling anxious.
My friend Andrew walked over to my side window, and told me he was feeling nervous.
After he left, Tom asked, “what’s the worst thing that could happen?”
“That they drop the boat,” I replied.
Then, Tom said, “If they do, we’ll deal with it.”
I squinted into the sun, and said, “OK.”
And of course that’s exactly what happened.
Our boat dropped onto the concrete and severely damaged our keel.
As Tom said, it was something we could deal with, and we did.
We decided to open the champagne anyway, and we sat together and counted our blessings. No one was hurt, our keel can be repaired, all is well.
Essentially, we rolled with the punches.
Sydney 