"If a man must be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most."
E.B. White.
I had my first sailing experience when I was just nine or ten years old. It was a complete disaster. My father, who had absolutely no sailing training or experience, decided to try renting a little sailboat at a nearby lagoon. Of course we were totally out of control and ended up getting blown into the mud on the downwind side of the lagoon. I don’t remember how we managed to extricate ourselves and get back to the dock. He must have dropped the sail and rowed us back. Thirty years later, it was a very different experience when I took him out on my own sailboat. He was never one to talk about his feelings much, so when he got the look on his face that told me he was surprised at something he was feeling, I asked him about it. He hesitated a moment, and with a bit of uncertainty said, “You know, this is actually kind of relaxing!” Some twenty years of training and experience made the difference between disaster and a relaxing afternoon sail.
Now as I begin to approach retirement, I’m looking forward to a fulltime cruising life.
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