Sea Squirt Day – The third Saturday of the month is Shakedown Day for the Sea Squirt Girls Crew #99. Last Saturday our ship Darkrunner’s Mirrornearly became splinters as Dad’s robot Thumperilla suddenly decided to steer into the path of an oncoming supertanker!
As robots go, Thumperilla is very nice. He can read bedtime stories, calculate Dad’s astrophysical S factors, cook Spanish chorizo and vacuum under the bed with a hose attachment that reels out from his big toe, but he’s a terrible sailor. At least not yet, says Dad.
Actually it really wasn’t his fault. Dad is taught him how to play baseball last month. (He’s a rotten fielder, but he hits pretty well.) Anyway, Dad gave him several commands. “Steady as she goes,” means keep going straight – which he did. When Dad said, “Shift your rudder five degrees port,” he did so. But when he told him “Check your swing,” Thumperilla must have thought Dad was talking about baseball, not sailing. Thumperilla jerked the rudder back toward his own shoulder like a batter avoiding a strike. Instead of bringing the ship back on course, Thumperilla drove it straight in front of the tanker.
Dad tried to pry the tiller from Thumperilla’s hands, but robots are very strong. Fortunately I remembered that Thumperilla is very ticklish under his arm. Tickling worked right away, which was good since we only missed the thousand foot ship by about fifty feet. It nearly swamped us with its wake!
Sometimes it isn’t easy being the daughter of two inventors.
A near miss for Sea Squirt Girls Crew #99 - Photo by Mom pointing and shouting from the dock.
