Editor’s Note

Behind the Lens

By Kaylie Jasinski

With the spring boat shows creek; it was a sunny day, and in most just behind us and spring areas you could touch the bottom without fishing upon us, it seems even straining. the entire month of April Several times that afternoon we tipped flew by in a blink. You might have seen the boat over, as small sailboats are apt me around the Bay Bridge Boat Show, to do, but simply righted her and on we face pressed to my camera, and occa- went. It was a hot summer day, after all, sionally being dragged out from behind and falling in was part of the fun. But the camera to stand front and center. then on one tack near the mouth of the Anyone who knows me knows that I river, the boat capsized and the mast was far prefer being behind the lens than on driven down into the muddy creek bed. screen, but being the editor of a boat- To passersbys I can understand how the ing magazine, on-screen time is often situation may have looked: a capsized necessary. sailboat, two kids in the water…

Perhaps my fear of the limelight all started several years ago when I accidentally # You won’t see me on the Ebb Tide Charter video - I’m behind the GoPro lens (and under the gray beanie). made the Baltimore evening news for something I am in no way proud of. I’ve been boating my entire life, practically before I could walk, and the only two really bad boating experiences I ever had were on sailboats (the first I wrote about a few months back). So in case you were wondering, there’s no chance I’ll be converting to blowboats any time soon.

This particular instance was about 10 years ago. I was 15 or 16 years old, and my family had just purchased a Sunfish What happened next is a story that sailboat from Craigslist. I was dying to will live in infamy in my family, a story take her out on the water and my teen- to be trotted out whenever possible at age hubris had me thinking I could take family gatherings. “Remember that time her out unsupervised. So one afternoon Kaylie ended up on the evening news..?” I when my parents were out, I did just remembered. that; rules be damned. While we were busy trying to pull the

I asked a friend over, and we set off Sunfish off the sandbar, a neighbor called from my pier on a sunny June afternoon. the marine police. As we were laughing at We were able to sail up and down Sen- our misfortune, trying helplessly to get the eca Creek for hours, and I loved every mast un-stuck, we began to hear sirens. minute of it. However, we had not told Soon after we saw the flash of police anyone we were taking the boat out (as lights on the opposite shore. That couldn’t that would have made our stealthy plan be for us, we assumed. Then we noticed irrelevant). I can see now how reckless a helicopter flying low, making a beeline that was, but for two 15 year olds, we in our direction. But again, that couldn’t truly did not see any danger in the situ- be for us… could it? Martin State Airport ation. We were sailing on a protected was right around the corner, after all.

As the helicopter approached, we realized it was a news chopper. Apparently when a neighbor reported our seemingly perilous situation, the local news station decided we were headline-worthy. After realizing what was happening, we began devising a plan to swim for shore, leave the boat, and try to get away without our parents finding out. Right around that moment, my mom returned home to several messages on our answering machine. Friends and family members were frantically calling because they saw on the five o’clock news that a small boat had capsized on Seneca Creek, with two kids onboard, and they figured it had to be the Jasinski kids. Our reputation preceded us. Before we could abandon ship, we were picked up by a neighbor who towed the sailboat back home where we were “welcomed” by a concerned mob of neighbors and parents, all assuming the worst had happened, and glad to know we were safe, but understandably angry with us for the scare. Looking back I can almost laugh. Because we came out of it without a scratch, it truly was a comedy of errors. I thanked my lucky stars that nothing bad happened, and the Sunfish was relegated to a weedy patch of the back yard. I later realized what could have happened given our teenage hubris, and despite the embarrassment, I was happy the marine police responded so quickly.

But is it any wonder I’m a tad camerashy these days? Perhaps in the future I will get more comfortable with it, but for now I’ll be there gritting my teeth, hoping I can hide behind the lens a little longer.