My first yarn of the new year

I woke on New Year's Day at first light. It is a magical term for magical time of the day. You look out the window and it still looks dark, except that the sky is noticeably lighter now. I first learned this term in the Coast Guard reserve. I was performing two weeks summer training at the lifeboat station just downstream from the Soo locks at Sault Ste. Marie Michigan. 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. As a reservist I was added to the three-man crew of a patrol boat. The engineman started the engine, the deck hand cast off the line, and the Coxswain drove the boat away from the pier down St. Mary's River along the American side, all without a word being said. I thought it was a magnificent piece of teamwork. Gradually over the next week I learned that I didn't have the whole story. It seems that the engineman had invited the coxswain's daughter on a double date. It turned out to her surprise that she was supposed to be paired with the deck hand. She complained to her father, and the whole crew just wasn't speaking to each other. They were a talkative bunch. The moral of the story is supposed to be that communication is good. Oh, and the sailboat. They put in for the night safe and sound. They just forgot to tell somebody they should have.