Goofing Around

 Hannah had the yellow strap she had used to pull me back in, in hand.  I was sitting on the seat as the boat bobbed about in irons, dripping wet from my unexpected swim. 

“This is called a teather.” She stopped for a moment to clarify. “It’s not actually a kid thing. I use this one when racing.”  She stopped and gestured at her own life jacket “It doesn't work with this lifejacket, it doesn’t have a connector for it.  Mostly just racing and offshore jackets have them. I have a different life jacket for when I race. But your lifejacket is offshore and does have a connector for it. So we can clip you in.  That way you don't get thrown so far from the boat, or get left behind if you fall out. Your lifejacket seems to keep you afloat just fine but this will keep you from ending up stranded in the middle of the lake.”

I didn’t hate the idea of that honestly, looking down at the front of my life jacket I didn't see where it would connect to, Hannah seemed to sense my question. 

“Ok ya that part is a kid thing, it’s actually on the back of your jacket.” Hannah moved beside me, I felt her pull on the back of the jacket and a moment later I heard a heavy metal click as she connected the strap to my life jacket. “There ya go. It’s actually a lot safer to have it clipped at the back, that way if you get dragged you get dragged backwards not forwards.  It’s actually possible to drown getting dragged forwards, not on a boat like this but like on big boats.  Downside is you can't really reach it yourself though, so most adult life jackets put it on the front.” 

Hanna stepped back, the remaining end of the tether in her hand still. I tried to look over my shoulder to see how she had attached it, but was completely unable to with the large collar.  Reaching back and feeling around for it I came up short again, it seemed to be connected to that spot in the small of your back that you can never quite reach. 

Hannah watched me fuss about for a minute or two, clearly amused. “Ya I think they put it there so kids can’t unclip themselves.” She seemed to be enjoying the state of affairs. I’d had good luck so far with jokes at my own expense so rolled with it.

“While that’s probably for the best then, I’m basically a child anyway.”

Hannah grinned, signalling my success with another joke. 

“That’s ok, I know how to take care of children.”

The way she said it made my knees weak. She crouched down and there was a loud metallic snap as Hannah clipped the other end of my tether to a ring on the floor.

“There. Now you can’t run away”

I nearly fainted. 

Hannah smiled. “Let’s get going again, the water will run out once we are moving. Are you getting hungry by the way? I bought sandwiches but we need to run back to the dock to get them.

“Sure that sounds great!” I hadn’t realised how hungry I was until she mentioned it.

It was a warm day and I was comfortable despite the breeze and being soaking wet, but it was still nice to have a little extra warmth from the lifejacket.  Hannah was taking us back to the dock which was mostly downwind of us. The boat didn't seem to move nearly so fast downwind as it did up which surprised me. It also didn’t rise up to one side so we were sitting on opposite sides of the boat from each other again.

Hannah was driving casually, looking very cool, she looked across at me and smiled.

“Thanks again for being such a good sport about the lifejacket by the way, a lot of people would have too much ego to even give it a try”

I shrugged, overjoyed by the compliment but trying not to show it.

“No problem, I’m glad we did this. It's a lot of fun, way outside my comfort zone, but fun.”  I’d meant that to be all but opened my mouth again. “It’s really not bad, the lifejacket I mean, like it's actually pretty comfortable, especially in the water.” 

Hannah grinned, what looked like almost a knowing grin. “Maybe we’ll have to get you strapped into it again some time.”

“Sure—” I answered before even thinking. Cutting myself off as I realised how weird that was.  But Hannah was still looking at where we were going, smiling openly now. She glanced at me before responding. 

“I totally remember how that jacket felt in the water, super safe and cosy.  — In all honesty I’m a tiny bit jealous of you that you actually fit into it.” 

The dock was fast approaching and Hannah seemed to switch her focus from our conversation to the task of docking the sailboat. For a moment I was sure we were going to drive straight into it but then at the last moment Hannah spun the boat around hard and quickly undid the ropes that held the sail tight.  The boat spun around and drifted slowly to stop alongside the dock.  I let my face betray how impressed I was and Hannah gave me a little bow.  

“Here” Hannah tossed me a rope. “Hop out and tie us off.” I took the rope and clambered awkwardly onto the dock. The strap between my legs reminded me of its presence as I crawled up out of the boat. I wrapped the rope around the tie off on the dock a few times in each direction hoping that was satisfactory. Hannah was still in the boat, fussing with the ropes and tiller. I started moving down the dock, figuring I’d wait for her on the grass. I nearly fell backwards as I suddenly came to the end of the teather. It was like I had just walked straight into a wall. One second I was walking normally and the next the jacket just stopped me dead. I stumbled backwards a few steps. Then stepped into open space, then toppled over backwards into the water.

It wasn’t as dramatic as when the boat flipped. I just fell backwards and landed with a splash, but there was still a moment of panic as I fell unexpectedly.  This time though the lifejacket had me floating on the surface before I had even fully realised what was happening. 

“Are you OK?!” There was genuine concern in Hannas voice. I couldn’t see her as she was behind me, I just raised my hand and gave her a thumbs up. It was met with immediate laughter. 

I was actually not upset about being in the water again, the first time I had been so distracted by panic and gotten out just as I was starting to relax and enjoy it.  So I didnt move to climb out right away, instead taking a moment to just float there as Hannah got it out of her system. It was really incredible how different the lifejacket felt in the water compared to on land. I really was like being held. I reached down with my foot and was surprised when I didn’t feel the bottom.  I was only a few feet from the rocky shore bank. Suddenly I felt a tug, and I was moving through the water, away from shore, back toward the boat.  I realised that Hannah must be pulling me in and tried to turn around to get a look at her but struggled to do so, I couldn’t turn my head with the bulky collar and I couldn’t rotate my body as I was being pulled along from behind. Then I was suddenly moving away from the dock and along the side of the boat, I twisted hard and managed to rotate enough to see Hannah, tether in hand, walking along the side of the boat pulling me with her.  She gave the tether a tug spinning me back around again, losing sight of her. I thought she was going to haul me in but instead she kept walking, hopping to the dock and taking me on a little ride all the way around the end of the dock.  I just allowed her to pull me along, enjoying the feeling of floating in the lifejacket.  I reached out with my legs again, knowing full well I would find nothing down at the end of the dock, when there had been nothing near shore. The lack of physical purchase made the sensation of being held by the jacket more visceral, it was strange, cosy somehow. I felt the tugging ease off and a moment later Hannah reappeared in my view, standing on the edge of the dock above me holding the end of my tether. 

“You look relaxed.” 

I nodded. “It’s weird, I’m normally super nervous in deep water.” 

She smiled. “Ya, but you’ve got the super safe. But I’m hungry, let's get you back up, we can float around a bit more later” 

I lost sight of Hannah again briefly as she pulled the teather causing me to spin away from her, I was pulled over a few feet towards her and then she appeared upside down directly above me, hanging over the edge, as I bumped into the dock. 

“Ok up we come” Hannah grabbed the loop on the front of my lifejacket and proceeded to bob me a few times up and down in the water, using the life jackets float to get some momentum.  Then I was hauled up and clear of the water and plopped down on my back on the down, my knees bent over the side. I lay there for a moment catching my breath, then struggled up into a sitting position.  Pulling the jacket back down as it had ridden up a bit. 

“You good?” Hannah asked happily. 

“Yup” I nodded and managed to get to my feet, water pouring from the jacket as I did. 

“Good, come along.” Hannah practically skipped away, end of the tether still in her hand, she gave it a pull, yanking on my lifejacket and forcing me to move forward a few steps faster than I had been.

“Whow I ain’t no dog.” I was teasing 

Hannah looked back and shrugged. “Welllll you can’t get that tether off anymore than a kid can, soooo I think that means you, like a kid, have to do what I say.” She was still walking and gave the tether another tug. 

“I could definitely get that off if I wanted” I thought she was being a little silly. 

“Doubt it.”  Hannah turned to face me and stopped walking, allowing me to get some slack in the line.  Despite my first attempt I was pretty confident I could reach the clip.  

I tried reaching around under my armpit first but the clip was too high, I bent my arm back hard, straining to reach and just brushed the very edge of the clip. But the clip being so high meant I should be able to reach the other way. I then tried to go over my shoulder but immediately realised the problem, the wide and thick collar around my neck protruded back nearly a foot. I could barely reach the underside of the collar with tips of my fingers, let alone the clip on the small of my back. I tied under arm again, and realised suddenly that she might not be wrong.  Feeling like the foam collar couldn’t possibly really stop me I tired over my shoulder again, this time grabbing the collar and trying to squish it in towards me, I managed to get my wrist over the edge of the collar but was still miles off. I glanced at Hannah, she was grinning ear to ear with her arms crossed over her chest, the end of tether in hand. 

I stated the obvious at this point. “Well I could just take the life jacket off and remove it that way if I really wanted to”

Sailing Date - Part 3

Hannah’s eyes narrowed. “Ow you better not even think about it buster” she was teasing but it also seemed like a challenge.

I moved my hand slowly towards the waist strap buckle. 

Hannah cocked her head. “I will lock that thing onto you.”

I laughed. “With what?” 

“Ow I’ve got locks, my sister is an angel but I was a little gremlin, and an escape artist.” 

I just raised an eyebrow.

“Ow ya, for years there I refused to keep it on. My dad eventually got buckle locks for the thing so I couldn’t take it off when they weren’t looking.  That’s why it has those annoying buckles on the crotch straps where you can’t adjust them without taking them off. Because I kept making everything loose.”

I was sceptical “I’m not so sure the buckle locks that work on 10 year old you would work on an adult” 

“Ow, you Wanna try?” Hannah seemed to all of a sudden think this sounded like a fun game. “Don’t forget I told you I was strapped into that thing until I was fourteen”

Without another word Hannah was moving, quickly, towards the shed. The tether went taught and I had to take a few jogging steps to avoid getting yanked again.  Hannah was through the door and into the shed without a pause.