Mind the Time
Copyright© 2014 by Old Man with a Pen
Chapter 28
Lake Constance didn't freeze over all winter. There was a skim around the edges most mornings but that was usually gone by ten. Cold nights, reasonably warm days around the lake and pretty decent wind. With the Rektor's yacht ... which belonged to the University ... on the hard and Gypsy, Vee's Hanse 630 parked in it's spot, Wendy and Vee did some weekend sailing ... right up until circumstances put all first year students in night locked Student Housing.
But, before she was forced to move and before she was let loose on the lake, Vee had to prove herself. And that's when summers spent at the Pentwater Lake family compound proved themselves. Vee sailed like she flew.
No Fear!
Wendy "the Wanzor," for all she'd been the first of the Watchers to fly, sail and marry, was at times terrified at some of the racing stunts Vee pulled.
"I know where my body is and whether I'm in the air or on a boat I know where the boat is too," she told her proctor.
Professor Paul Eisenger wore several hats at the University; Professor of Marine Engineering, head of water-sports activities, head of watercraft maintenance, Chief State watercraft inspector, and proctor for Lake Constance watercraft operator licensing; Germany. And Bodensee water quality control officer ... water cop.
Professor Eisenger didn't much care if a University student wanting to drive a boat on the Lake came equipped with papers from every country in the world, if said student didn't have a Bodensee operators license, he was a novice.
Very few Erstsemester students came with their own boat ... the uni-konstanz.de/broschueren-city-guide said the school had boats for student use. The same guide showed pictures of said boats racing ... and why bother with reading the fine print when there were pretty pictures.
God couldn't help you if you peed over the side. The three countries that licensed the hundred and fifty commercial fishing boats on the lake also random tested the meat from those fish and there'd better not be e-coli present! They wouldn't have any trouble identifying the pisser either ... all three countries had color cameras everywhere ... the fine was enormous.
That was one of the problems with Europe ... Cameras ... Cameras ... Cameras ... everywhere; street corners, crosswalks, parking garages, ski trails, mountain tops and valley bottoms. The courts accepted the video as evidence and a lot of Europe was Napoleonic Law. You are guilty until you prove your innocence.
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