... Coming into harbor just now we had a tug boat coming the other way in a narrow-ish channel. My 'Glass showed it was the 'Lasy Susan' about to spin my world around. Indeed, the AIS prediction had it passing very close to me in 2 minutes and 20 seconds. I stared at the words 'Lazy Susan' on the Glass and then winked. VFH went live, with his ID already dialed in.
"Lazy Susan, this is the sailing vessel Rag Dryer, off your bow", I said.
About this time I glanced to my port, blinked a long slow blink and brought up the depth overlay, adjusted for the present tide height. It was too shallow to go there. The Active Captain link was working too, as there was an unmarked piling 100 yards off, one of several obstructions in the area. It looked good to the starboard, but it meant backtracking a bit. And he might be headed that way.
"Rag Dryer, Lazy Susan", was the reply. Voice recognition took a second, it's usually pretty slow like that. Finally, up popped the name Vincent Boatsalot, age 42, divorced twice, 3 kids, smoker, failed a drug test back in 05. It was dismissed because he ate a poppy bagel that morning. The retest the next day was fine. No DUIs. Tax payer. Good credit rating. Jets fan.
My 'Glass told me that his 'Glass was looking at me. I can only assume my 'Glass was informing his 'Glass that I was looking at him. (And there was another sailboat in the distance looking at each of us.)
"Are you taking the turn to your port or continuing straight", I said.
"We're going straight; suggest 1 whistle.", was the reply. Those tug drivers are good.
So I glanced up at the autopilot icon and did the usual wink nod and look to the right. The boat immediately changed course.
Then I took a sip of my coffee and went back to listening to my favorite 80s channel. The coffee was good so that I order another pound to be delivered to the marina and twittered how much I liked it. That done, I took another sip.
As the tug passed, I brought up VHF with his ID again and said "Go Jets".
I was surprised at the reply as he said "80s music rocks, Bene505."
Two blinks later and we were following each other on Instagram, so I DVR-ed back a couple minutes, edited the screen shot and posted a picture of his fine ship. He immediately liked it and hash-tagged it for his friends to see, at #tugsunderway.
Then I took another sip, slowed the boat down and left my hammock on the bow to get a refill.
Regards,
Brad