The simple sailor

Sailor, sailboat… what ever. Realistically I should have bought a bigger boat. Maybe a modern 40-50 footer with a hot shower, wide flush decks and his and hers helms. I’m done I say, this is my last boat. Regardless of my catamaran dreams, maxi fantasy and almost achievable reality of a brand new Oceanis; I am done. ‘It’s a fool that looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart.’ We have landed, Ooku is all nestled in. The bay is as still as a photograph today. The dark green water has me wanting my new dink, it hasn’t arrived just yet.

Slowly the boat is being stocked with everything. Next on the list is fishing and crabbing gear. I still haven’t figured out all the fancy boat gear. I think it has a lot of the things most people like but I ignore them for now. The time will come when I have to admit that while still simple, this boat has lots of fancy dressing. She has 6 brand new sails, 4 made by Hasse. I still haven’t explored the for peak, too many sail bags. Spring cleaning will come soon enough but for now I’m just assessing her. She still doesn’t feel real. I need to discover a Brompton parking garage, remove a few gadgets and do a bit of touch up on her interior varnish. Only then can we start to make her our home. New fluids and a quick coat of paint in the engine room is at the top of the list. I’m hoping the new dink will fit on top of the cabin. As much as I hate this location, she is a tiny boat. For now one small solar panel will complement her two group 27 batteries. Maybe a start battery will make the list but for now I’m not adding anything.

Ive loaded the Man can with a fresh, no I like that. A rotten old bottle of whiskey. Were actually the same age but I fear it may be faring a little better than I. Its time for my thinking chair, a blank sketch book and time alone with this old girl. If i haven’t said it aloud selling Sookie was a mistake. She is clearly a better, though smaller boat in every way. Be that as it may the new boat has potential. She will never sail as well as the FC but she will sail well. Every trip fills one more space, she is becoming a home. Her list is short and simple, replace everything. time frame, 20 years. Budget, everything I have. Payoff, priceless. This last part I cant explain to you. Cut the lines and sail engineless up the esst caost of Vancouver island, then you will understand freedom and beauty. There are no pictures that can tell this story, no words. It must be lived. this is why in in over 35 years of sailing ive still yet to share a single journey. when I slip the lines, it becomes my time…

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s