On Kindness To Strangers
One day last week I went out sailing with Sergey and Koby after work. The evening was warm, and the sunset was beautiful. There was only one problem: the lack of wind. We persevered under the sails, as is our custom, and it took us an hour and a half to cover a mile... if that.
While we were covering that mile in slow motion, another problem uncovered itself: we had had absolutely no alcohol aboard. I usually discourage drinking when we are sailing, but on that day, we were not going anywhere and clearly needed something else to keep ourselves occupied.
Eventually the wind had left us entirely, and we decided to wrap it up: drop the sails, turn the engine on, do a small loop over the harbor, and head back to the dock.
So here we are, proceeding under motor, and we see a blue sailboat, also under motor and with dropped sails, coming towards us on an opposite course.
We are moving at a brisk pace, and they are moving at a brisk pace, and suddenly they turn directly towards us and proceed on an intercept course. We make a few jokes about them being crazy, and meanwhile they are getting closer and closer.
As they come really close, we notice a dude standing on the bow of the blue boat and holding something in his hand.
He throws that something at us.
It turns out to be a cold beer can.
Their boat immediately turns away and keeps moving.
By the time we are done catching the beer, they are already too far away behind our stern to even thank them.
We look at each other, stunned. We wanted to drink, we suffered from having nothing to drink, and suddenly a blue boat came from nowhere, gave us beer, and disappeared again.
We are speechless.
Then we open the can, watch the sun setting down and slowly drink the cold beer.
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