Dan’s Papers October 1, 2010 danshamptons.com Page 32
TWENTY SOMETHING by David Lion Rattiner
Scaring the Crap out of Myself
©Ronald J. Krowne Photography 2008
I recently took my friend Paul out sailing at night on Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton. Paul has never been on a sailboat, never sailed before and is not a water person—he’s a city person. So to introduce him to sailing, I decided to take him out at night, in high winds and choppy surf. When we got out into the bay, it was relatively rough. Not scary for me, but for Paul, to quote him exactly, “I’ve never been so scared in my entire life.” He couldn’t see and I told him to hold the tiller steady while I rigged up the mainsail. The feeling on my sailboat was the same feel-
ing that a little kid who’s introduced too early to Six Flags might have. Pure terror. On the way out of the harbor, Paul and I discussed our ambitions, business we were working on, sports, but once in Gardiner’s Bay all conversation went towards self-preservation, “Is this normal David? Ahhhh, I don’t like these waaavess, ohhh no, oh noooooo!!!” Poor Paul. I almost missed feeling the way he feels as nothing about Gardiner’s Bay scares me anymore. I can navigate it blind and know every part like the back of my hand. A few days ago, I found myself in the sales department here at Dan’s Papers talking to the East Hampton sales rep, Karen Fitzpatrick. She was telling me about a great book called The Heart of the Sea, which is about the whaling boat Essex that was attacked by a sperm whale and sank, leaving its crew 3,000 miles out at sea in small boats and jerry-rigged sails, trying to make it back to South America. She seemed so excited about it. What a saleswoman, I thought, and then went out and bought the book. To make it even more exciting, I figured I’d read the book on my sailboat. After all, there are only so many more days left of boating in the Hamptons.
Beautiful Custom Drapery!
Call Linda & Paul • 631-287-1515
375 County Road 39, Southampton • www.wwunlimited.com
1267362
WWW .FLICKR .COM /PHOTOS / WINDOWSANDWALLSUNLIMITED
Tide Water Dock Building Company Inc.
Bulkheads Pile Driving • Rock Walls
Ken Hahn 631-728-3364 16 Sherwood Ave, Hampton Bays NY
1267366
C
ine’s Cleanin r e h at off Thee Hamptons g Licensed & Insured Serving High End Homes on the East End Based in Sag Harbor Est. 2002
Full Service Housekeeping Basedd in n Sagg Harbor
Film Fest
Year Round Hampton’s Housekeeping Cell: 631-793-1121
catherinescleaning.com Irish Owned
1267717
Out on:
SEE SOME PICTURES OF OUR BEAUTIFUL WORK ON:
1267233
ATING
CELEBR RS! 2 5 YEA Check us
I found myself once again in Gardiner’s Bay, and for the first time in a long time, pretty terrified. These whalers from Nantucket had it so bad it’s not even funny. I was completely engaged by the whale oil industry in the 1800s in Nantucket. Men would hunt sperm whales ferociously, it WAS the oil business back then. Everything burned on whale oil and these ships were filthy with whale guts and blood and shipmen who operated them thousands of miles out at sea. There I was, maybe a mile off the coast on my boat, reading about them. I think it was when I got to the chapter about the men resorting to cannibalism that I started to get so scared, I looked up to make sure there was nobody else on board my boat and I turned the engine on and let it hum a bit. I could not put this book down. Nantucket whaling was nothing like how it is portrayed today. It was a very tough, very ugly, very dangerous business. I thought about the whale men in Sag Harbor and how many of them must have suffered while out at sea. (There’s a great museum in Sag Harbor—the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum.) I often think, while sailing, about how easy it would be just to continue on the boat if I just stored it up with a bunch of food and water and just kept heading south. It’s always a pleasant thought, and I occasionally dare myself to do it. Just sail away, maybe to the Caribbean and retire. Perhaps that is how I will retire one day. I have a friend and fellow writer, Colin Graham, who has done just that repeatedly for the last year and a half or so, with a big ship that does tours for students. Even today, sailing is a way of life. But I’m not too sure that I was feeling that way the other day, recognizing the dangers of life out at sea, even with modern day equipment. If your boat sinks while you’re 3,000 miles off the coast, that’s pretty much it, no matter what century you’re in. Try to imagine being in a home in Sag Harbor in the 1800s, and out on a whaling ship, 3,000 miles off the coast of South America, there was somebody you knew who embarked on a three-year whale hunt where a whale would be harpooned and then subsequently stabbed to death with lances, just so you could fill up your oil lamp and have lights at night. No rescue communication systems for them, no emergency water filtration systems on board, no helicopters, planes or motorboats to back them up in an emergency. Just some guts, greed and thirst for adventure. As I sit here writing this, I can’t decide if that was a crazy thing to do back then, or if it would have been crazy not to do it. (continued from previous page)
awards and cash prizes up to $5,000.” Nugent talked about the advantages filmmakers now have with such a variety of platforms to showcase their work. “This process will help usher in talent for the next generation since it’s easier to get started on the smaller screen,” he said. “It’s freeing for filmmakers to know they can create work that has a life beyond that single hope that it will make it to the big screen. Not everything does.”