I MISS MY SAILBOAT

I sold my sailboat to focus on relocation to farm life. I didn’t have time or money for both. It’s easy enough to afford buying a sailboat but the time and money for maintenance can be a real drain—especially when it’s a long drive between home and dock. So I said goodbye and for about an hour it was exactly as is said about the best days of boating life being the purchase then the sale. But after that hour, I came down with a hard case of seller’s remorse.

Not long afterwards, I built my beach-house-up-on-stilts-in-a-cow-pasture in the South Carolina boonies and, when it was done, immediately missed the water. Sailing. Swimming. Splashes. Waves. Wind. There’s a 35-acre pond through the woods below my pasture so I ventured down there in my 4 x 4 pickup taking a trail I’d blazed and taking also a swim noodle and a few beers.

The water was murky but cool on hot summer days. It felt great to float on that swim noodle with an ice cold Budweiser in hand. At least at first it felt great. From the corner of my eyes, began seeing squiggles in the water. Not fish. SNAKES!

That’s when I bought the cheapo blue rubber from Big Lots. $200! What a deal. (I’d have paid a thousand to get away from snakes.) That pool during that particular summer became the story told in my first novel Blue Rubber Pool.

The pool eventually fell apart, leaving me high and dry again. The remedy this time was a small wooden Gunter-rigged oar/sail dinghy—probably built based on a Phil Bolger design. Bolger was a prolific boat designer known for his book Boats With An Open Mind and others.

I loved taking it out on that pond, scooting along on a breeze, thumbing my nose at those snakes. But then a bad injury (car wreck) go me, knocking me out of sailing even a boat small as that dinghy. A few years later, as I was nearly recovered and ready to back out, an health emergency requiring major surgery got me again. The Bolger boat sat there for another year and would still be sitting now if I hadn’t sold it. Fyi, I sold it to just the right guy (sailor are picky about who they hand off their hulls to). Hank Weed. He owns Chico Feos, a popular restaurant on Folly Beach.

Anyway, I ran across this tee shirt design via Sailing Lifestyle and now I’m back to wanting another boat.

Any sailors out there? Looking for a slightly dented crew member? Please let me know.