In my dream, I am getting a new sailboat ready for its initial trip.
This is not just any sailboat, it's an Optimist Pram -- the same design as the one I first learned how to sail when I was 10 years old. Or thereabouts.
At the start of the dream, I am standing next to the boat on dry shore. It is likely on a boat trailer or other support, because it's high off the ground, making the onshore rigging easier. I go to put the rudder in place, but halfway through the process, I realize the boat needs to be in the water for this to be done successfully. So I putter around getting other things ready to go.
There are other people around me and the boat, helping to make sure everything is ready. I don't recognize faces or hear voices, but I'm pretty sure my older brother is part of this effort. Quite possibly just standing nearby.
The scene changes, and the boat and I are in the shallow water. I can now easily affix the rudder and tiller properly in their place at the back of the boat. My dream does not include anything about setting the sail on the mast and spars or getting into the boat. But I find myself properly on board with the sail filling nicely. The boat begins to pick up speed via the power of the wind on the sail.
As the boat gets underway, I realize that the water where we're sailing is the arm of the Chesapeake Bay where I learned how to sail and spent as much time as I could either swimming or sailing.
As the boat moves forward, I see my older brother's head bobbing in the water slightly off to the side as I go sailing past him. He looks neither pleased or worried. It would seem he wanted to be there just in case we hadn't got the boat properly rigged or there was some other problem. I look at him and he looks at me. Both pretty expressionless.
I look forward as the boat and I head out to open water.
