It may have been a stray gust of wind. Or perhaps I tilted my head just right as I waved to those girls in the ski boat. I could blame the invisible hand of a mischievous King Neptune. My left palm slapped my head just a fraction of a second after liftoff—too late. My cap was in the drink.
I chopped the throttle, reversed course and idled back to where I thought—where I hoped—my cap might be floating. I searched for 15 minutes as my crew grew restless.
“Come on, Dad, give it up,” said a daughter. “It’s gone. And I know you have a box of caps at home. I’ll get you a new cap. The kids want to water-ski.”
They don’t understand. Big Green Lake is 236 feet deep, and now my beloved Mercury Pro XS cap was too. My heart sank even deeper. I tend to develop a loyal, long-term relationship with a cap, and this Mercury cap and I have been together since 2017. The cap had faded from black to light gray, the brim was frayed and sweat-stained and the headband was gross. I stuck with that cap so long because it fit perfectly.
One of the fringe benefits of my 39-year career in marine journalism is that I have never had to purchase a cap. At every event or boat test there has been a hand-out. Bill Aucoin, my first boss at OMC, called them “gimme caps,” as in “gimme one of them Evinrude caps….” I always put the host’s cap on at a boat test, not out of respect but because if my cap is going to blow off, better to lose the new cap I don’t love than my personal favorite.
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When you have so many gimme caps you get particular about color and design but most importantly about fit. I can put a cap on and instantly know if it’s a keeper or going in the Goodwill box. A cap with a low crown, for example, will not stay on my big head. A cap with a high crown looks dorky. I prefer a cap with either a Velcro or sliding buckle adjustment, because a snap-back too often does not offer an ideal fit—one hole is too big but the next is too tight.
For many years I wore a red Boating cap, but that one was lost and replaced with a light-yellow lid from Pathfinder. I recall I left that one on a test boat. Next was a red Grady-White model that I wore for many years. I think I lost that one in the water too. So that’s four primary caps in about 35 years. I do have a box of back-up caps, most marine branded. Others are Stihl and Vermeer caps my brother-in-law gets at arborist trade shows, a Gulfstream cap from a son-in-law who builds jet interiors, a number of Trek caps from a daughter in the bike biz, and one from Joe’s Garage bar in Oshkosh I found in the ditch. Right now I’m wearing a Tiara Yachts cap that feels pretty good and might stick. I must choose carefully. At my age this could be my last long-term cap relationship.
