From freshwater sailor to saltwater sailor – part four

Adriano Gatta, from Brescia, DOC, class of 1956, free-rider, mountaineer, former judo national team member, photography enthusiast (the photos accompanying the story are his), wrote to us telling us his story as a former “repentant” motorboat racer. We offer it to you divided into installments (here you will find the first one, here the second and here the third), as newspapers once did. Here is the fourth part of our “summer tale” for you.

And here comes the kicker…….

I go back to the lake and get into the boat and my wife and I look into each other’s eyes……after 40 years of being together we understand each other on the fly.

“Remember that buen retiro idea?”

And I in return “To Cervia (said in the Romagna way with é closed) to find friends and relatives…..”

“Well, if we start by taking the boat there, we could use it as a home, then in a few years, we drop Brescia, at least in the summer, and then Croatia is nearby.”

“Well near un par de ciùfoli, 80 miles minimum, it’s not like you go there every weekend and the sea on the Riviera….. is not Sardinia….sure the people are exceptional, the quality of life as well but…. and then it’s not like we can bring ours, it’s not equipped for sea has small engine, it’s a mess.”

“Well, let’s sell ours and get one by the sea.”

Blessed innocence of women, they already don’t understand a thing about engines let alone boats…. “May I remind you that I am officially unemployed even though I have almost 40 years of work behind me, Andrea(our only son), who graduated from college over a year ago, is still looking for work.”

“Eh, whatever, you look for a judo gym that needs a master, what do I know, Cesenatico Judo, do some gardening, aren’t you a land surveyor ? And then since you’re at home you don’t spend anything anymore, you get around on your scooter or bike, just dry cleaning, compared to when you were working, I save a lot of money.”

I don’t know about you, but I know who’s in charge in my house, and I can already see how it’s going to turn out, I’m going to have to learn the Romagnolo dialect; oh, let me be clear, it’s not that I mind the idea, in fact I had already thought about it myself, but I thought I’d wait a few more years.

Then I have a brilliant idea to save goats and cabbages:

“Okay, I’ll put the boat up for sale,” so I’ll make the wife happy, anyway given the time of crisis and the price I’m asking (I have no intention of selling it off, it’s very well kept) it will be months, maybe years before I find a buyer……

I hang a sign, a little defiled, on the bulletin board of “Canottieri Salò,” my club, and, when I get home, on Subito.it(can you say ?), not even in a specialized magazine, and I put my heart at rest. While I am at the Pc making the announcement, a call comes to my cell phone.

“excuse me are you selling a sailboat on the lake ? I was in Salò today and saw the ad”

I remain mute 5 seconds I don’t want to believe it; in short to make a long story short in 20 days I receive about ten phone calls, some of them phony like ” io diplomatigo from Ivory Coast, you send me documendi, I make you bonifigo indernazionale”

I blow them off by reminding them that I watch Strip News, too.

I eventually sell the boat to an old judo student of mine whom I have known since he was 8 years old and who had already tried to buy my first boat but called me two hours after I sold it.

“Adri, don’t tell me you have already sold it this time too ?”

“No, no quiet Maurizio, not yet in fact, if you take it I am very pleased, I know how you keep it, although it is better that I do not tell anyone what your last name is !!!”

Between you and me, this is no joke, this friend of mine is a namesake of the Grand Master of the Order of the Bowing C.C.D. ( Costa Concordia Docet)…. we don’t mention names, or rather last names.

Said and done; the boat is sold now I’m going to put the money aside and then we’ll see.

But what does the wife, who until yesterday had never worried about anything else on the boat other than the dishes, the interior decor, or the best place to sunbathe, do?

He pokes around the internet and presents me with a list of 40′ with the desired features: 3 cabins, two bathrooms, two wheel steering( so I can move better) etc. I’m very much afraid that not only will I not put that money aside but I’ll have to add to it…….

END OF PART FOUR (the fifth and final part will be online on Thursday, August 14)

REREAD THE OTHER CHAPTERS OF THE SUMMER STORY

Part 1

Part 2




Part 3