Only one thing’s worse: winter
Issue 45 : Nov/Dec 2005
Boatless. What could be worse than being boatless in the summer? This is essentially what Jerry and I have become now that we’ve implemented my “big idea.” That idea was to explore new cruising grounds by moving our 30-foot C&C from Lake Superior to Lake Huron’s North Channel.
So now our boat is a 12- to 14-hour drive from home. What was I thinking? A plan of this type, once implemented, results in a complete change of lifestyle.
While we used to have frequent three-day weekends aboard, now we have committed our weekends to working on the magazine as a trade for two three-week vacations during the mid-summer and fall. In between, we have to concentrate like mad on magazine production in order to get away for each uninterrupted three-week span of time.
So our lives this summer have consisted of the following: Launch our boat. Put a magazine together. Deliver our boat and sail her in a new place. Put a magazine together. Sail our boat and haul her out. Put a magazine together.
When we get morose about the driving distance to our baby and the infrequent visits, we have to remind ourselves that we’re really very lucky to have a total of six weeks (divided in two parts) to go cruising. We never had that sort of time off when we worked for corporate America.
Besides, we have another boat. Sort of. That one’s not sailing yet, which only adds to our frustration. We embrace Project Boat Concept Number One, which encourages sailors to use their boats while fixing them up in baby steps . . . as they sail them over the seasons . . . making them better and better while simultaneously learning more about what works and what doesn’t.
Take it apart
So when it came to our own project boat, how did we become mired in Project Boat Concept Number Two: take the thing apart entirely and spend years putting it back together?
We have yet to sail our trailerable Mega 30, which we bought one cold February and dismantled immediately . . . not even a test sail before purchase. Do as we say, not as we do. Never buy a boat this way. Everyone knows that.
A couple of years ago the Mega could be torn apart because we had another boat we could continue to sail, right? Now, of course, the Mega provides solace for a couple of folks who are essentially boatless in the summer of 2005. All we can do is pour our hearts and souls into furthering her completion.
As I write this, it is August and we’re on deadline for the November issue. The timing is nuts, I know. Thank goodness we’re not putting out a daily publication. When the November issue goes to the printer, we’ll head to Ontario for the second of our two-part vacation cruise in the North Channel.
By the time we’re back at our desks doing penance for that three-week chunk of time spent sailing, you’ll receive this issue in the mail. We will have put our baby away for the season in Blind River, Ontario. And winter will be coming on. That’s tough to grasp in the dog days of August.
As I contemplate that scene, I realize that there is indeed one thing worse than being boatless in the summer: winter.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
