My first yarn of the new year (Told backwards)

They just forgot to tell somebody they should have.
Oh, I am talking about the sailboat. They put in for the night safe and sound.

The moral of the story is supposed to be that communication is good.

My new crew was actually a talkative bunch.

It’s just that the girl complained to her father, and the whole crew just wasn't speaking to each other.

It turned out to her surprise that she was supposed to be paired with the deck hand.

It seems that the engineman had invited the coxswain's daughter on a double date.

Gradually over the next week I learned that I didn't have the whole story.

I thought it was a magnificent piece of teamwork.

The coxswain drove the boat away from the pier down St. Mary's River along the American side,

After the deck hand cast off the line,

Soon after the engineman started the engine,

and all without a word being said.

As a reservist I had been added to the three-man crew of a patrol boat.

A sailboat had been reported missing the day before and we called off the search on account of darkness, to be resumed at first light the next day.

I was performing two weeks summer training at the lifeboat station just downstream from the Soo locks at Sault Ste. Marie Michigan.

There is a term. I first learned this term in the Coast Guard reserve.

You look out the window and it still looks dark except that sky is noticeably lighter now.

It is a magical term for a magical time of the day.

I woke on New Year's Day at first light.

My first yarn of the new year.