Part of sailing lessons involve learning how to attach our sailboat to a mooring ball. Simple enough. Little like threading a needle in the wind while standing on one leg. Allen slowly drives the boat towards the floating ball bobbing up and down in the waves and Jim and I hang off the front of the boat to catch it. Jim has a line from the boat and I have the boat hook. Allen, of course, can’t see the ball as we approach it so we yell back at him on its position. Keep the boat steady and straight. And just like that, the ball goes under the boat and we’ve missed it. Jim and I promptly launch into a conversation about how to modify our approach for round #2 but as conversations often go with Jim Moore, we digress into a discussion about the construction of the ball and everything else rather unrelated to the immediate task at hand. Meanwhile, Allen is still back at the helm waiting for an update of the ball. We eventually secure the dang ball and celebrate our success with island drinks and a conversation about communication, which of course in sailing life ends up being much more important than just attaching to a mooring ball.
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