Basketball. Whatever comes in second at the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill, I’m not sure.
I remember UNC timed spring break to coincide with the conference basketball conference. That’s when being from ‘Communist Hill’ wasn’t a good idea if you met someone from Durham (Duke) or Raleigh (NC State ) or from up-north Virginia. Those people fussed a bunch about the basketball players Chapel Hill recruited.
Atlantic Coast Conference basketball tournament time was a good time to charter a sailboat and sail somewhere east of Florida. (I’ll save our cruise south from Puerto Rico for another writing.)
But in summer, we often sailed our 36-footer to Chesapeake Bay. To get there we had to sail a river running through enemy territory—Virginia.
On our stern the Coast Guard required you to paint boat name and home location.
We complied. Named our sloop the Hawaiian word for ‘Margaret’.
Makaleka
Chapel Hill, N.C.
As we motored north up the river headed for the bay, another sloop with Virginia lettering passed heading south. Their skipper hailed.
“What’s a boat from Chapel Hill doing up here?”
I hailed back. “Looking for basketball players.”
Photo by Andrea Linja at Pixabay
