Sailing in Central Park with Bruce

My friend Bruce and I had long enjoyed watching the toy boats sail in the Central Park Boat Pond and talked of renting one often but never did. Bruce finally broke down and bought a toy sailboat at an online auction where it was listed as ‘sailable’ when it should have been  listed as ‘saleable’.  The following Saturday afternoon we headed to the Pond and as we were  unpacking we were approached by an older veteran sailor who carefully  looked the boat over and helped adjust the rigging and sails. He remarked that this model didn’t have a weighted keel but we could try  sailing anyway. Bruce placed the boat in the pond and it did sail… briefly. A strong  gust blew the boat over and the cloth sails were soon stuck in the  water. A toy power boat tried to help right the boat but mostly only  pushed the boat further underwater and was caught briefly in the  rigging. After the owner got his boat free he ran around asking for  other sailors to try and rescue the toy boat which was floating  horizontally just below the surface. There was nothing anyone could do and neither of us looked forward to getting in the water and rescuing the boat.  After several minutes of commotion, a toy fireboat (with working  waterworks) came sailing up to the rescue and glided to a graceful  stop just above the boat. It lowered a (paperclip) hook into the water  and easily snagged the sailboat and dragged it to the edge of the  pond. Only in New York… Andy Padre