In addition to having the privilege of sailing with Drizzler and File Not Found, I got to join them for a birthday party at the sandspit. We arrived to find the beach ready and waiting for us, with food on the grill and lawn chairs at the ready. There were several boats docked along the spit and most of them were part of our group. Being that I didn’t no anyone, I had no idea who was with us and who was against us. Against us and not with us was File Not Found’s ex-wife, who was in the pontoon boat at the end of the spit. “This may get awkward,” Drizzler advised, “That’s the good and bad thing about the sandspit. It’s a private beach surrounded by public water. Anybody can show up.”
After several hours of shore and boatside hanging (and no cat fights), we opted to take a ride. Although a majority of the party had left, about twelve us hopped in the power boat and began tooling around the river and creek areas. Just as we were shoving off, Forecaster appeared on the beach with two beers in one hand and an empty bottle of pinot grigio in the other hand. “Look what I found,” he excitedly exclaimed, “A message in a bottle.” “Shit!” Drizzler and I said in unison. Then Drizzler added, “Throw it back in. Hurry, throw it back!” The thing is, Drizzler and I had decided to do a message in a bottle after finishing off the grigio magnum. We wrote the note, walked down the shore a bit, and threw it in. Some of the guys told us it was the perfect time to do so because tide was going out. Others thought it would just roll back to the shore. Others were right and, as a result, Forecaster found our message in a bottle (which was ‘pre,’ aka wrongly dated, for the next day).
With Forecaster and his two beers on board, we made our way out into the river. We were reaching speeds of about 50-55 mph, when the birthday girl advised File Not Found that she used to jump out of the boat – at these same speeds – when she was a kid. She then handed him her cigarette, said “hold this,” and jumped off the boat. Riding backwards, I was hit by a massive wave of water, as were several others (who saw it coming). After pulling her back in the boat, she informed us she said, “That was great. I plan to see my chiropractor tomorrow.”
By the time we returned to sandspit, the tide was rolling in and beach space was limited, which meant we had to walk in the water to return to our vehicle. One of the party patrons offered to carry one of the kids on his back. “I don’t know if that is safe,” Forecaster told me and then added, “He (the party patron) hasn’t brushed his teeth in 15 years.” Sadly, the latter appeared to be true. “Welcome to the Eastern shore,” Drizzler quipped.
I rode with Forecaster back to the main house. “If you want the wind to blow on you, roll down the window,” he advised me and added, “In order to do that, you’ll need to push the down button and hit the speaker in the door at the same time.” I didn’t care about the wind so much, but wanted to see if the window bit was true – it was. He then told me, “Feel free to bounce strange things off me and I’ll respond with strange things. Done it all my life. I just know some things that are going to happen. I go to sleep and wake up with this knowledge.” “Do you have dreams?” I asked. “I do, but I don’t remember them,” he replied.
This part of the Eastern shore really gave me far more than I expected – if I was like Forecaster, I would have known this would be the case and would have packed my 14k grill. Since that wasn’t the case, I just got to watch things unfold and determined this private beach/public water birthday party was the perfect mix between Trailer Park Boys, Gidget and Psycho Beach Party. Jersey Shore ain’t got nothin’ on us.