Sailing

A friend of mine just got a sailboat. I'm really happy for him. He's been wanting one for as long as I've known him. He had this one built special and he can't wait to put it in the water. The only problem is that it's still Winter up where he lives. Cute huh?

Well, his excitement got me to thinking back to when we lived in Miami back in 1976. We thought we would enjoy sailing in Biscayne Bay and perhaps on down the Keys, even to Key West. Never having owned a sailboat and not knowing the first thing about sailing, we took the Coast Guard Class on Sailing. bought a 23' Aquarius and became instant sailors.

It's funny how excited we were about this new adventure and every weekend we looked forward to getting the boat in the water and sailing off into the unknown (unknown because we didn't know much about our new found hobby). Meanwhile, we would clean and wax and practice setting up the mast and taking it down, stowing cargo and anything else we could think of.

We finally got it in the water and our practice paid off. We were sailing. And there were those proud moments when it all came together. Just the two of us or with our friends, sailing, sailing and loving every minute of it.

Even though my Sweetie and Number One Deck Hand probably wondered if we would survive, she seemed to have enjoyed it too.

It was fun but we soon came to realize that we were probably out of our league and we sold the boat. Looking back, I wish we had kept it. At least the adventure could have continued and we just might be real sailors by now.