On
a Boat
It
was late in the summer when I went to Uusikaupunki, a small coastal
town in the south-west of Finland. My friend Timo had a house by the
sea near the city centre, but he was not at home when I went there
with Rainer, another friend of mine. We walked around and found a
yellow rowing boat moored to a dock. Almost immediately we decided
to give it a try. Timo probably wouldn't mind, and there would be
no harm if we borrowed the boat...
The
boat was light and thin, made of hard plastic. The surface was slippery,
so I had to move carefully in order not to fall or damage the boat.
We didn't get very far, though, when a large crack emerged in the
bottom of the boat. Possibly we had rowed too vigorously or possibly
the boat simply could not handle our weight. Water bubbled in. We
jumped into the water and swam to the beach.
'Lucky
we didn't go any further,' I said. 'If we had reached the open sea,
we would have drowned.'
The
boat sank to the bottom, which would hardly please Timo. On the other
hand, the boat was clearly not fit for sea. So, in a manner of speaking,
we had actually done a favour when we removed the dangerous means
of transportation. Besides, it was nice to go for a swim, particularly
as it was late in the season. It was probably the last swim before
winter.
Rainer
dived into the water and grabbed the rope. By pulling it he dragged
the boat, and slowly it came up from under the surface. We raised
the broken boat to the beach. There would be some explaining the next
time we met Timo...
There
was another boat at the dock. It did not seem any safer.
Opposite
the cliff there was a lifeguard chair. It was 3-4 metres high, built
out of rusty metal pipes. I climbed up the creaking ladders. From
the top, looking down, I could see how dirty the beach was. There
was debris in the water and the shoreline was full of old bottles
and metal caps. Below the surface I saw another sunken boat, partly
buried in the mud. Probably it had been there for a long time, forgotten
for decades.
The
chair included handles. On the right handle, I noticed two glasses.
I picked them up and examined them. They were beer glasses, dusty
and dirty, but otherwise in good condition. I was about to put them
back down when the metal structure began to wobble. It rolled to the
left, probably due to the changed center of gravity, and finally collapsed
underneath me. I fell off on a cliff to the left side of the chair,
with the glasses still in my hand. They remained intact, which would
surely make Timo happy, even if the chair was now broken.
Later
in the evening we sat in a local restaurant called Kirsta. We were
supposed to drive towards Helsinki. But we had to postpone the trip
until the next day, as it was snowing heavily.
