The naked drunk guy with the knife

So, while this is outside the generally factual, sailing-based travelogue we’ve built here, it’s just too good not to share.

At about midnight last night, I was just nodding off despite the neighbor’s wire halyard incessantly clanging off his mast- Really, people, is it that hard to tie these things off-, when I heard some splashing outside along with some really odd yowling.

Curious as to what was happening outside, I got dressed and stuck my head out the hatch in time to see a naked man climb out of the water and start crawling around on the dock, making all kinds of slurred meowing noises. He looked to be trying to disassemble the dock, all while making this really odd noise.

Ok… First thought is that we have a psycho on our hands. Do I call the cops? I figured that I’d at least give the guy the benefit of the doubt for a while so I observed quietly from the cockpit. I just couldn’t figure out what he was doing, though. Finally, he left for a while and I could hear the most pathetic little meow coming from over where he had been.

He reappeared, and I decided that a somewhat goofy looking rescue attempt was underway. So, I walked over with my flashlight to find a clearly very intoxicated gent digging away at the dock with a little marlinspike on his rigging knife. I introduced myself and asked if I could offer any help, but sort of bummed out that there was a knife involved. Anyway, he actually seemed to be a good guy trying to help this poor cat. He’d already been in the water and was convinced that the cat was somehow stuck under the floating docks. I didn’t really get how that could have happened, but there was a really unhappy cat down there somewhere. He kept trying to dig around on the dock with his little spike, and it took me some doing to convince him that he really couldn’t take apart a concrete floating dock with a rigger’s knife.

We spent 10 or 15 minutes looking around, and just couldn’t find the beast. I was just about to give up on him and let nature take it’s course. I started walking home while our new friend went to retrieve some tools, when I heard the cat start whining all over again. I also saw another cat hanging over the wall, looking down with seeming concern.

I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway, so I went back for another crack at getting the cat. I hung off the dock as far as I could and saw some wet fur stuck up under the pipes running under the dock. My new buddy grabbed him, and we were both surprised to find that it was a tiny little kitten. We dried him off, put him on the dock, and watched his mother come over and guide him back into the bushes. Mission accomplished.

It turns out that the protagonist in this story is on a newly arrived Beneteau from a few slips down. Seems like a good guy.

The waterfront is an odd place sometimes…