So here I am in Cambridge in 1987, punting along behind the Cambridge Backs. I hadn’t punted in 12 years, but my skills (such as they were) came back quickly enough, and I hardly collided with anything at all. It was nice the the river had a gravel bottom, unlike the muck at the bottom of the Isis in Oxford, and so the river never tried to snatch the pole out of my hands.
On this trip I taught Melinda Snodgrass to punt, and she soon was poling along like a pro. We were on our way to the Worldcon at Brighton, where we had even more nautical adventure, capsizing our catamaran in the English Channel. (The sheet block had been installed upside-down, which means that in order to release the sheet [the rope that controls the sail], I had to lean far out over the stern.) A gust came up too quick for me, and I was yanking the sheet the way it was =supposed= to go, so in we went. Eventually I was able to right the boat, but by that point we were chilled and sought the land.
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