Kennedy pleads with wife to sail in regatta

(Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff)

Kennedy and his wife paused on the pier to answer questions from the media before heading toward the sailboat.

By David Abel and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

HYANNIS PORT -- It became evident today where US Senator Edward M. Kennedy honed his ability to negotiate and compromise: at home during playful disagreements with his wife, Victoria Reggie Kennedy.

The subject this afternoon was whether the ailing senator would participate in the annual Figawi regatta, a three-day race from Hyannis Port to Nantucket that begins Saturday.

"I don't know," Kennedy said when asked about the race by reporters as the couple boarded their 50-foot schooner for an afternoon sail. "One day at a time."

When another reporter asked about the race, Victoria Reggie Kennedy had had enough.

"Stop talking about the Figawi," she said, cutting off the senator before he could answer. Victoria Reggie Kennedy implied that her husband had enlisted the media to help convince her that he should compete in the race. The senator tried to strike a bargain: How about sailing just one leg?

"Is this a conspiracy?" she asked with a knowing smile. "I want to know."

Kennedy stammered and did not answer.

"This is a conspiracy," Victoria Reggie Kennedy declared.

The senator laughed. "You can tell how this is going," he said.

Kennedy had been scheduled to give the commencement speech Sunday at Wesleyan University, so he could not ever have been planning to participate in the full Figawi. (Senator Barack Obama is now giving the speech.)

However the banter today with his wife showed a personal side of a man who has made few public comments since his diagnosis this week with a malignant brain tumor. Before sailing off again on the Mya with his Portuguese water dogs, Sunny and Splash, the senator took the time to reiterate his thanks to his doctors and nurses, senate colleagues, and the well wishers from across the globe.

"It's been very uplifting," Kennedy said. "Very touching."

• Comment
• Permalink
• Email