Enjoyed a very pleasant day with Nick and others. Nick is a member of the Harlem who has been placed in a nursing home, probably for the rest of his life, as a result of memory issues. But his non-recent memory is fine. While visiting a while ago, he expressed a keen desire to go sailing again. I thought: Why not?! And the nurse said "Sure, you can take him out for a ride as long as you do not keep him out overnight." I am a member of a group who is trying to look after Nick's interests. The leader of this group, Alan, "cleared" me with the authorities there, viewing the need for such a clearance to prevent strangers from "taking Nick for a ride," in the slangy sense of that phrase
On the day in question, after several adjournments due to questionable weather days, Harry, a long time friend who is not from the Harlem, joined me in picking up Nick before 11 am. He was crying, literally, when we arrived and complaining about his
“prison”. We said: “Well not today; you're going sailing today!” and that was the
end of tears for the day. He drove with us to the Harlem YC where we all
got sandwiches from the local IGA because the Club dining room is closed on weekdays for the remainder of the season. We ate aboard after getting underway.
There had been some fear about Nick’s ability to walk the length of the dock,
climb into the launch and from the launch onto the boat, but he handled these
tasks as well as the six others of us. There were seven men altogether. The
four in addition to Nick, Harry and me were fellow members of the Harlem: Brian, Al, Mike and Howard, of "The Club Within The Club." Every man enjoyed the day. Both before and
after the sail, Nick went over to his boat, on its cradle, at the side of the Club parking lot, and admired her lines.
We were underway from shortly after noon
until just before six pm. The winds were moderate and we used the full
main and small, self-tacking jib. Nick took his turn at the helm and handled
the boat well and conservatively. We went out to close by Rye, NY and then
tacked on the way back and used the motor for the final hour because our launch
closes at six these pre-winter evenings so we had to hurry. Nick and all the rest
of us amused each other by telling each other stories. After returning to shore, Harry, Nick and I had
dinner at Artie’s Italian restaurant (Thanks Harry) and we drove Nick back to
the nursing facility, arriving at about 7:30.
I will definitely be looking forward to a repeat sail with Nick, et al., next
season.
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