I Slipped My Disco!

My friend, Bert, my daughter, Haley, and I were sliding in from a decent day of sailing.  The temperature had dropped with the sun and we had that nice tired feeling you get from too much sunshine, fresh air and minimal exercise.  The sails were down and Bert was at the helm as I busied myself with all the little things that need to be put in order

And Now For Your Viewing Pleasure...

Every once in awahle I come across a video that inspires, thrills or informs me, maybe it will do the same for you.

How To Get an 85ft Mast Under a 65ft Bridge.

The Doctor is In...Part I

Why sail?

Ask a hundred different sailors and you'll get a hundred different answers. For some it's a quest for knowledge, for others it's the search for adventure and for others it's the drive of competition.  Challenging, solitude, ability, wonder, escape, acceptance, self-satisfaction, the list could go on and on and I'm sure for most it is a combination of some or all the things listed.

But I can only speak for myself.  When I look back to when I began to where I am now in my sailing and my life, the essence of sailing has had different meanings.  As I grew as a person, as a way of thinking and living in the world, my sailing grew and reflected that time in my life.

Let's Take a Ride On a Watermelon Seed!

I came across this the other day and thought I'd share. I love all the information that is laid out in the video and I'm sure most of you who read my writings already have some reasonable understanding about the topic at hand, but the truth is my sailing gets defined at the 8:50 mark of the video. Enjoy!

How to Ride a Watermelon Seed

"An intuitive feel and a practical understanding", that has to be the yin and yang definition of most sailors. Using that hard practical understanding of our world and how it works in order to achieve the emotional and spiritual release from that same world. 

A Boat By Any Other Name Is Still a...

When we first bought our Helms we were immediately faced with a major dilemma, one that supersedes any other problems no matter how large or how small that may have been discovered. Bottom paint, who cares, standing rigging, so what, running rigging, maybe later. We need to get down into the meat and potatoes...what to name the boat.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, and you would know this had you been following along and paying attention, when we bought the boat the previous owners had named it Doo-Dah. I have to say right up front, I completely respect a persons' right to name their boat anything they like. It's a lot like naming your children. With all things being equal I think we can all agree that discretion needs to applied in two major areas of our lives, when deciding on names and tattoos. But I digress.

Sometimes You Meet People in the Strangest Places

Lisa and I went sailing yesterday. I know, big deal you say, those two nuts are always going sailing. Yesterday wasn't anything but unusual...except one thing.

The winds were light when it existed at all and it was hot. I mean it was middle of August in Columbia, South Carolina hot. Columbia is so hot that the official logo is "Columbia Famously Hot" . Pretty much all we did for the first couple of hours was float and sweat, or in Lisa case, perspire. I spent my time trying to coax the sails to capture any faint breeze all the while that breeze clocked around the compass teasing me into submission. I finally just let the

Let's Take This Baby Out For a Spin!

Lisa and I were almost at the lake. We eased the car down the gravel road, weaving our way between trees until Norma's home came into view. We were both excited and nervous because we were about to take the Helms out for a test sail.

We exited the car and moved down the hill toward Norma's home. We walked around the porch and knocked  on the door and were immediately greeted by the yapping of two dogs that were, of course, the joy of Norma's life. This was obviously going to be a big event as Norma had asked her son to be on hand just to make sure everything went smoothly. No one was really sure when the last time was that the boat had been taken out, but it was generally agreed that it had been at least a year or two. Norma had two new batteries installed and the engine had cranked smoothly, which is a good sign. 

Lisa and I boarded the boat and got halfway situated. The motor turned over right on cue and I revelled in the staccato chug of the two cylinder diesel.  We made all the lines ready (that means we untied it from the dock for all you landlubbers) pushed it into gear, gave it a little gas and we eased out into long slue where Norma's home sat. It was magnificent, guiding that boat toward the main body of the lake. The sun was bright, the air was crisp. I was captain of my ship, master of my domain... for about five minutes.

The Storm Before the Calm

I wanted to back up just a bit and give you a little more filler as to how we arrived at our boat purchasing dilemma. 

As I alluded to previously, with Lisa's urging, I found a place at Lake Murray, SC that would not only rent a sailboat to qualified individuals but will also teach you the finer points on how to handle a boat. 

It was sometime in October of 2011 on a Saturday afternoon when Lisa and I pulled into Lanier Sailing at Southshore Marina in Lexington. I had called ahead and talked to Paula, a sweet helpful woman who was more than happy to make all our reservations and told us where we needed to be and who we needed to talk to when we got there.  

We arrived at the appointed time and were warmly greeted by Brian the proprietor and as it just so happened was married to Paula.  It always amazes me how those things work out. 
Just so you know and you want be shocked if you ever meet him, Brian has a British accent. So please don't gawk and stare like I did and in case you didn't know speaking slower and louder doesn't help the conversation go any smoother.

Gravity

Should read "The Dumbest Movie of the Year" 

I know this is off topic but Lisa and I watched the movie Gravity last night.  The only thing good about the whole movie was we didn't drop forty bucks to go see this nonsense at the theatre.  In order for Sci-Fi to be there has got to be some realm of plausability to it and this had none. 

I mean the from the get go you have have one astronaunt working diligently trying to repair the Hubble and at the same time another astronaunt is acting like a yo-yo with his tether and the another is cutting laps around the shuttle while listening to bad country music and making wise cracks. After that it was all down-hill.

At one point Bullock dumps her space suit and then has to use another suit from a soviet spacecraft. Now correct me if I'm wrong but aren't these suits custom designed for only one person. Imean it's not like they are buying these things off the rack at some box store in Cape Canaviral.

And what are the chances that Bullock, who had six months of training before going into space, could succesfully navigate two space modules, one in russian and the other in chinese!  I mean let's face it Spaceballs was more believable.

Here's another hint: if your name isn't Spielberg, Lucas or Howard you do not need to be in a movie written, directed, and produced by the same person .

Needless to say, if you haven't seen this train wreck go spend an hour and a half doing something useful like staring into space. 

Do You Believe In Love at First Sight?

Yeah, me neither. When I first saw "the boat" or "das boot" for all you German majors, I wasn't all that impressed.

Now That I Think About It...

All this boat business is pretty much Lisa's fault to begin with. Had she not suggested we go out on a sailboat when we were dating none this would have come up and I / we would have continued to lead "normal" lives.

In case you haven't noticed or maybe you're wondering, the Swamp Fox does not refer to an American revolutionary war hero.

Although he does but he does play into this story

Change, always change. In my life, my relationships, the things we do, the things we believe. Only recently, within the past 4-5 years, have I really understood the importance of embracing those changes.

Sometimes these changes are sought out, other times they are thrust upon us. In the case of the "Swamp Fox" it was stumbled upon. 

This blog will try to recount the story of Swamp Fox. How it came to be, it's transformation, our transformation all the while being interspersed with current stories about our time aboard, our family and really, anything else I feel compelled to write.