"Yellow-boat man, what's he got in his sack?"
--four singers on the dock bayside in Berkeley serenaded me as I paddled back from a kayak workout.
A blurry shot of the dock-singers. With my sunglasses on, I can't really check the focus of the camera, and I was sitting in my kayak, bobbing on the slight swell, at the time too. Still, here they are. I pulled up next to them to say hello, and they called out that they'd made up a song about me and did I want to hear it? I told them, of course, please. They sang a fun song with multiple verses I can't recall and a chorus of which I only recall that one line quoted above. I listened, laughed appreciatively, thanked them, and asked if I could take a photo. They smiled and agreed.
The joke of the song--"Yellow-boat man, what's he got in his sack?"--has to do with all the gear I load onto my kayak even for such a mere workout paddle. I put my dive gear, cold gear, and repair gear, none of which is needed on such a day, onto Sofia because if you are going to train for a real diving outing, well, you don't go light. You pack it all on, and I think my red dry-bag or the red net bag caught their attention. Of course, with the hippie/rasta vibe they had going, "what's he got in his sack?" evoked both contraband and mojo. Or, that's how I took it, happily so.
Here's a shot of Tertius, my truck, and Sofia, my kayak, loaded up, with the dock in the background. You can see the musicians still out there, playing and singing. Jaunty day. Better than I had expected.
Thanks, guys.
