Three-part Harmony, Second Part

[rcvesselstyn]

The end of summer of 1969 and we were sitting on Dad's mooring over at Catalina Harbor. It was getting on in the afternoon and boats were starting to trickle in. As was the custom, all the moored boats were watching the anchoring follies. We would evaluate people's abilities and techniques when they anchored or picked up the moorings and rate them as far as their experience. The really big boats were usually immune from the critique because they had paid crews and captains and didn't usually make any mistakes. A huge gleaming white powerboat snagged a mooring upwind of ours. After a bit, someone emerged on the top third deck and was surveying the harbor from his lofty position. Dad and I immediately recognized him as a very famous trumpet player and record label owner. Celebrities are no big deal at the west end of the Island, they are pretty much treated just as fellow boaters. No one was paying any special attention to the guy on the big powerboat and we saw him head back down below. The sound of a trumpet echoed from the powerboat. It was 'The Flight Of The Bumblebee' and it was spectacular! You could see people all over the harbor stop what they were doing and listen. The guy a few boats over picking up his mooring stood holding his bow line transfixed on his foredeck. The speed of the playing seem to get faster and faster and then it was over. Everybody paused for a moment and then went back to their activities. The trumpet player returned to the top deck and surveyed the harbor for a reaction. It looked like everybody had been oblivious to his masterpiece. Dad was just finishing up an eye splice and was rolling it under his hand on the cabin top. The trumpet player looked down at him and raised his hand to wave. Dad raised his hand back and kept rolling the splice with his other hand.


The next morning I was rowing out to the point. As I passed the stern of the huge powerboat a pair of hands latched on to the transom. A kid's head popped up, mask half full of water, coughing and spitting. His legs were bicycling like mad, he obviously was not comfortable in the water. I held the dinghy in position and told the kid to throw his mask into the boat. " Hey, catch your breath. You're okay." "You've got hold of the boat, you can stop kicking. Relax your legs. Slow your breathing. Count with me, breath in one, two, three, four, five. Breath out one, two, three, four, five... That's better." He said "I gotta pee." I said" Go ahead, the fish don't care... Diving's kind of hard if you don't know the secrets." He had calmed down and this definitely got his attention. I proceeded to go through each aspect of what he was doing and worked with him. Helped him get his mask back on and explained about conserving energy when you're in the water. The kid was probably only 5 years my junior but I had been diving for a long time, and learned from the very best. We spent 30 minutes going through things. He was bright, and a good student. Now he was obviously much more relaxed and under control. As I started to leave I looked up at the powerboat and saw that the trumpet player had been keeping an eye on us. I raised my hand to wave, he raised his hand back. I continued to row out towards the point and was thinking, well, it wasn't The Flight Of The Bumblebee, but maybe we were even.

Over the years we would see him on and off. He would always wave.

[SailingChris]

Great stories.