Word: moor

 

moor

\ moor \  , verb;

1. To fix firmly; secure.

2. To secure (a ship, boat, dirigible, etc.) in a particular place, as by cables and anchors or by lines.

3. To moor a ship, small boat, etc.

4. To be made secure by cables or the like.

noun:

1. The act of mooring.

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                The docked boat rocked gently as the water lapped at its thin metal siding, the boat held to the dock by a mooring rope that was too thick for its purpose.  The group of three looked at it, one with joy, the other two with disappointment. 

                “Well, what do you think?” Dan, the only one who was happy with the boat, said.

                “It’s not really what I was expecting.”  Sarah, one of the disappointed individuals, said.

                “Yeah, the way you were talking about it, I thought it would be a lot bigger or something.”  Amy, the third member person said.

                “I said it was a boat.  I never gave any indication of size.”  Dan said.  While he hadn’t expressly said anything about how big the boat was, the way he had talked about it made it seem much grander in to the girls.

                “Well, it’s just that this is kinda…” Amy said, pausing to find the right word.

                “Tiny?  Pathetic?  Flimsy?” Sarah said, voicing her opinions about the boat.

                “Simple.” Amy said finally.  “I mean, it doesn’t even have a motor.”

                 The boat was all of those things.  The thin aluminum metal was arranged in a classical boat shape, and was of average length.  It lacked any kind of modern propulsion systems, having only a pair of oars.

                “That’s part of the charm.”  Dan said, defending the boat as best he could.  “I mean, you’d rather have a noisy, smelly engine than a calm, quiet, relaxing row boat?”

                “Yup.” Sarah said.

                “Of course.”  Amy followed.

                “You two don’t know what you’re missing.”

                “Oh, I can think of a few things I’m missing.”  Sarah said, more than a little annoyed.

                “Oh just give it a shot.  I promise, once we get out on the lake, it won’t even matter.”  Dan said, putting one foot in the boat.  The two girls looked at each other and sighed.  Neither had much else to do at that moment anyway.

                “Ok fine, but you’re doing all the rowing.”  Sarah said. 

                “Yeah, I know.  I was planning on that anyway.”  Dan said.  He had come in knowing he would be manning the oars, and so her comment didn’t bother him. 

Even though she accepted, she still had made no moves towards entering the thing.  Amy was the one who went in first, knowing the other girl wouldn’t move until someone was already in, if only to prove that no sudden leaks would pop up when it was weighed down a bit.  Once Amy was in, Sarah reluctantly got in and sat down.  Dan smiled at the two girls and went to work on the thick rope that was fastening the boat to the dock far more securely than was needed.

He had tied it very tightly, not wanting anything unexpected to happen to his vessel, and so it took nearly ten minutes for him to finally undo the knot and stash the rope in the boat near the front.  He sat down, taking the oars and began to push them out into the lake. 

“See?  Now isn’t this better than a motor boat?”  He said, rowing them out into the middle of the lake. 

“Well, it’s slower, that’s for sure.”  Amy said, trying to make it seem like a positive thing.  She didn’t do as well as she had hoped.  Even so, Dan still managed to see the positive side. 

“Yeah, isn’t it?  Nice and slow.  Calm, relaxing…”  He said.

“And boring.”  Sarah muttered under her breath. 

                “Well, if it helps, we’re probably out far enough now anyway.”  Dan said, taking the oars out of the water and allowing his tired arms to rest a bit.

                “Well, that’s good?  Isn’t it?”  Amy said, not quite sure what to say.

                “Oh god, you’re not going to take out a fishing pole, are you?”  Sarah said.

                “Nope.”  Dan said.  Sarah took a sigh of relief at that.  If he had said yes, she might have considered simply swimming back to shore instead of dealing with that kind of monotony. 

                Instead, Dan stood up, setting the oars aside.  He took off his shirt, not caring that the bottom of the boat wasn’t completely dry.  He smiled at the girls and put his foot up on the side of the boat.  Without waiting for any comment, he hopped out into the lake, the boat rocking for a moment from his foot pushing off against it.  The girls looked out over the side as he came up a moment later and shook some of the water off his head.

                “Well?  You two going to join me, or are you just gonna sit there?”  He said. 

                “Ok, this, I can deal with.”  Sarah said.  She stood up and quickly removed her t-shirt and shorts.  When the girls had been told about the boat ride, they had come prepared, wearing swimsuits under their normal clothes.  Amy soon followed suit, setting her clothes neatly on the bench she had been sitting on.

                Dan looked appreciatively at the two girls.  While they weren’t exactly beauty queens, they were hardly bad looking.  Both were slender girls, but had very different ways of achieving this.  Sarah had the lean, athletic build of a tennis player, and wore her two piece suit reasonably well.  Amy on the other hand, was simply a health nut that had sworn off all forms of fat years ago, and was clad in a simply one piece.  Although they lacked certain features of Dan’s ideal female figure, he couldn’t really complain either. 

                Now that they were actually doing something, Sarah had cheered up considerably, and jumped out into the water head first, staying underwater several second longer than Dan had, coming up on the opposite side of the boat.  Amy was much less energetic about entering.

                “It’s not too cold, is it?”  She asked.

                “Nah, its fine.  I mean, it’s not a heated pool, but it’s not freezing cold either.”  Dan said.

                “Alright.  Here I come.”  Amy said, and hopped lightly into the water, hardly staying under at all.  When she did though, she looked at Dan wide eyed, and shivering.  “I thought you said it wasn’t cold.”  She said.

                “Yeah, it’s not.  I’d say it’s kind of chilly.  But it’s definitely not cold.”  He said.  Sarah swam around to join them, taking long, leisurely strokes.

                “He’s right.  This time anyway.”  She said when she had come to a stop.

                “You’re both crazy.  It’s freezing.”  She said, doing her best to keep her arms close to her body while still staying afloat.

                “Maybe you just need some extra insulation.”  Sarah said.

                “Oh come on, you’re thinner than me.  How can you be fine in this?” 

                “I’m hot blooded.” 

                “That doesn’t make any sense.”

                “Sure it does.”  Dan said, “It’s like how she can walk around in the dead of winter with only a long sleeve shirt on.” 

                “Winter’s here are wimpy.  Up north where I grew up you get some real winters.”  Sarah said, proud of her ability to tolerate cold more than her friends.  “Now come on, are we just gonna float around all day or what?” 

                She pushed a small wave of water in a broad arc, hitting both Amy and Dan in one shot.  Amy acted like she had been hit by a tidal wave, pushing herself back towards to boat.  Dan on the other hand, retaliated, soaking Sarah as much as he could by sending waves her way as fast she he could. 

                Their little splash fight continued for quite some time, the two repeatedly trying to get Amy to join in. She seemed quite content to float around, her body rocking gently with the waves as she held herself flat on the surface, enjoying the sun a bit once she had gotten used to the temperature of the water.  Suddenly though, she yelped a bit and thrashed around, recovering her more upright position as she looked around with panic in her eyes.

                “What happened?”  Dan said swimming over to her.

                “Something touched my leg!”  She said quickly. 

                “Don’t worry about it.  It was probably just a fish.”  He said.

                “It was not a fish.  I think it was a monster.”

                “Oh yeah, there’s lots of monsters in this artificial lake.”  Sarah said, not quite able to contain her laughter at Amy’s outburst. 

                “Well I’m taking no chances.”  Amy said, swimming over to the boat and lifting herself out of the water.  “You can stay in there all you want, but I’m staying right here now.”  She said.  Dan sighed.  There was no way to talk her down when she was in this state.  He looked at Sarah and rolled his eyes.  She knew just as well as he did what had to happen now.

                “Alright, fine, I get it.”  Dan said.  He pulled himself out of the water, quickly followed by Sarah. Without a word, he took up the oars and started rowing back, only a little disappointed that the day had been so suddenly cut short.

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My little attempt to help you all think warm thoughts with a small dose of summer.  Ok, so it's not a very good dose, but every little bit helps, right?