Enough of that, Mr. Captain, I tied it right

A friend's post on facebook today about knots of all things, brought an incident to mind where a boat captain, me, was put in his place by a teenaged crew member.

I loved the kids who crewed on the boat. Most of them were bright and wanting to learn and did remarkable jobs. One was about a junior or senior in high school named Nikki. She was a star on the basketball and volleyball teams and a joy to have around on the boat. With just a hint of respect she would give all the guff she got even from the captain.

So one day we pulled up to an unfamiliar dock. Instead of the standard cleats the crews were used to, these were low horizontal pipes running along the face. I warned the kids about it and not having the time to teach them all the proper knot, told them to just get a line around that pipe and hold it and then we would go along and tie off correctly.

Everything went smoothly and as soon as they had the boat secured I walked back and stepped onto the dock from the back deck.

Nikki was standing there by the stern line so I thought I would start with her, teaching them the ropes so to speak.

But, she wasn't holding the line, she had the boat tied to that strange cleat already.

Pompous ass that I was, without looking I said now let me show you how to tie a clove hitch.

Now, Nikki was short, sometimes looked like about half my height. But all of a sudden she grew about a foot, put her hands on her hips and gave me her most disdainful look as she calmly told me, "I tied a clove hitch."

And sure enough, she had. I laughed away my embarrassment and stuffed that incident away in my arrogant captain file, hoping in the future I would remember to look before I assumed anybody needed to be taught anything ever again.

10 basic knots

And then there was this today from Nikki herself: That is awesome! Funny, I also remember my first day on the job when I tried to tie the boat up and left it about a foot from the dock... and you looked at me like I was crazy then showed me how to put some muscle into it and get it right up to edge. I tied it perfectly every time after that... I think it was you that taught me that clove hitch! Great memories. I will share this with my parents-they'll get a kick out of it.