Marley always had a great fascination with seabirds of all kinds. She loved laughing gulls and would always imitate their cries, but she especially loved the brown pelicans.
Marley was still quite young when her first mishap aboard took place.
After the trip to Cape Haze, Capt Ma had decided to sleep in a bit late the next morning. Capt Pa took Marley on deck to her favorite perching place near the companionway door, under the dodger to port.
From her favorite vantage point, Marley could view passing boats, the marina and the local wildlife. Gulls flew past the bobbing boats tied to their moorings and brown pelicans swooped down to catch their breakfast of small fish. Marley watched very closely as a few pelicans skimmed the water into their massive beaks while gliding just above the rippling waves.
“Wow, how neat is that?” thought Marley watching the birds. She liked fish and ate it too but it was usually canned tuna, cooked fish and cooked shrimp. “Gosh, I wonder what fish right out of the water like that would taste like. Must be awesome and I am getting hungry too.”
One very large pelican glided across the water close to the boat, putting his beak down and scooped up water with the fish, ballooning out his lower pouch. Breakfast. Birdie breakfast.
She watched as the big bird gracefully set himself on the piling behind the boat. He held his massive wings out toward the breeze to dry and after a few minutes he preened his stocky body with his large formidable beak. Marley watched with one big eye as she tried to hold her little green wings out as the pelican did. She couldn’t hold them out as long as he had, but she thought, “Maybe I can’t do it for long because I’m dry.”
Marley peeked her small head through the dodger as the pelican watched her. She said, “Give me a kiss”. The larger bird flapped his wings and pulled his short legs under him to rest. After a few minutes of rest he yawned, pulling his head up and turning the pouch under his lower jaw inside out, then stood up, checked Marley out once more and flew toward the distant mangroves.
“Arrrrrraaaarahhhh” squawked Marley, She was really thinking, “You were so cool why did you leave so soon?” She checked to see where Ma and Pa were and saw that Capt Pa was still fiddling around with something in the cockpit locker. He was almost totally in it while he checked out the battery cables and who knew what else. Then she looked below and saw Capt Ma still in her bunk fast asleep.
Noticing the fresh mango and home baked bread in the galley that was put out for breakfast, Marley thought, “Nice enough…but I think that I would like to try fresh fish and be a real seabird too.”
She waddled out of the dodger, through the opened Isinglass window and onto the foredeck. She carefully creped along toward the bow, making sure that no one was following her. Things looked a bit easier from up there.
“Now then, I know that I can fly to the top of that piling near this dock and then I can catch fish all by myself,” she said to herself.
Below deck, Capt Ma stirred in her sleep dreaming of faraway places that she wanted to sail to someday. The boat was cool below as a spring breeze filtered through the front hatch and the gently rocking boat made sleeping aboard so very cozy, and she soon dozed off again.
Marley made one more check to see who was nearby, looked back at the azure water near the piling and extended her small wings trying to shake them like the pelican had done earlier. “Here I go…Talley-ho!” she squawked and took off toward the piling. She figured that she would start there and go for the fish from that point.
Dreaming of crystal water just off the island of St.Thomas and getting ready to jump in to snorkel the reef, Capt Ma suddenly awoke to ….
Slamming footsteps on the top deck racing forward from the stern, Capt Pa screaming,
“Marrrrrrllleeee-eeee…No-oooo!” Marley had missed the piling and overboard she landed!
Capt Ma jumped out of her birth and fumbled her way up the companionway steps to look outside, frightened that something happened to Pa. She saw Pa, butt held high, head held low, hanging over the side of the front deck holding a boathook and telling Marley to step up, it’s okay.
Marley struggled in the cool water but finally managed to get a foothold as Pa grabbed for her and caught her with one big swoop of his hand. She was safe on board again.
Wet, scared and shivering, Marley found herself instantly enclosed in a big fluffy towel that Ma had grabbed for her.
She was glad to be in the warm towel and began to settle down from her bad fright.
She knew now that she wasn’t a sea bird at all and didn’t want to be one either.
Capt Pa said that he felt awful; he had turned to check the battery cables for a second and saw Marley moving to the foredeck. He just couldn’t grab her before she went over. Marley chirped letting Pa know that she understood and for him not to be sad.
The lesson is that when on a boat, make sure to pay attention to what is going on topside at all times, especially if you have pets. Capt Pa learned a good lesson that day and it was a very close call indeed.
“Marley bad, bad, bad,” she said from the towel. She knew that she better leave the fishing to the pelicans and other big birds. She knew that she had been a bad girl too. She asked for kisses and hugs and of course, got plenty of them from both of the humans.
She was happy to have some mango for breakfast and a nap for lunch.
What a silly green pickle she is…………
Excerpt from Logbook May 6th, 1995
Thanks everyone. I have to get all of my stories together and then find someone to submit them to in order to get published.