Fistbumping Again

It happened again.
Parker Harrison and I passed each other on our gondolas and someone was there to capture the action.

A few years ago my friend Ruben snapped this shot from the Newport Boulevard bridge on a brilliant sunny day in spring.

 photo by Ruben J

Gondoliers in Newport do this all the time.
whenever we see each other and manage to pass by close enough. 
It's a fun exchange.

Oh sure, we've done other things:
- there's "high sticking" (whacking the ends of our oars), 
  which sometimes frightens passengers,
- passing extra bottles of wine for passengers or water for gondoliers,
- the rare but appreciated sandwich hand-off,
- and there was that one time when two gondoliers actually swapped boats...and kept rowing each other's cruise.

Most of the time though, a fistbump will do 
(although I'm always up for a sandwich).

Here's a link to the original fistbump post:
http://www.gondolagreg.com/2017/04/fistbump.html

So as I was saying, it happened again.
This time the sequence was caught by the passengers on my boat.

Here's the play-by-play:

The recognition.

The hat tip.

Initiating,

Just before impact,

aaand the actual bump!

And of course, reveling in how fun that was.

As you might guess - we love our job.
we get to be on the water with happy people.
We're often part of big moments and positive memories.
We get a workout while we're at it,
and our fellow gondoliers are great people.
So it's no wonder that we enjoy seeing each other while out on the water.

Sometimes it's the little things that make my day,
and this was one of those times.

The Calm Before the Storm - V-Day 2020

All the boats are washed and clean.
All those "I'm gonna get to it" tasks have been gotten to.
Fresh oars, fresh stripes, and a group of fresh gondoliers:
all waiting for the big day to finally arrive.

Valentine's Day is the "Superbowl of gondola cruises" for us here in Newport, and in a lot of other places.
It helps us get through winter, sure.
But it's also a huge event that we look forward to - simply because it's awesome.
On most nights a gondolier is one of a few who are out doing cruises,
but on February 14th it's all boats all day and on to midnight.
That's exciting to be part of.

In between dialing things in on several boats,
and fixing even more things on land,
I took a boat out to move it to another spot, and I caught this view.
Gary was just departing with a happy couple,
gliding towards a colorful horizon and making great memories.

Happy Valentine's Eve, amici.
I hope you sleep well and have a fantastic Valentine's Day.

-Gondola Greg