How did you get bitten?

[fatherchronica]

We always had human powered or motor powered boats, but sailing became a goal and eventually an obsession when my grandfather gave me Peter Freuchens " Book of the Seven Seas" in the 4th or 5th grade. I bought my first sailboat, a converted Navy whaleboat at 21, but due to stupidity I took me until I was 60 to sail off into the sunset. And due to that original stupidity coming back to bite me somewhere, I have been back for 2 years, and cannot leave again for another year and a half. My advice to anyone young enough to still heed it is don't get married, and if you have to, make sure she is sterile. For the record, I am happily remarried for 40 years, my wife loves cruising, I love her and my offspring, but some of my children are like those giant ancient stone anchors that resemble a millstone. Also I would recommend everyone read " Mischief in Patagonia", or any HW Tilman book. He is my favorite sailing author. Sorry to ramble off topic.

[Diesel Bill]

I think it started in the womb. I like floating on liquid. Crazy? Maybe. I was born a Pisces.
First memory of a boat was maybe 4 or 5 yrs old. Dad rented a skiff with motor and took Mom,sister and me (I) out on a large lake. Couple of years later Dad died and Mom moved us from South Carolina to New York City. I know. "Git a rope" After a few years in Brooklyn and renting a row boat in Central Park being the only boating available.
At 12 yrs old we moved to Staten Island and lived only a few blocks from the Stapleton piers where I spent many hours fishing for Stripers and Blues. I wanted a boat so badly that I sold my H.O. train set for $10.00 and bought 2 sheets of plywood and built an 8 ft. dinghy. Found a 5 H.P. 1948 Johnson outboard not running. Bad coils, found another one for parts and cobbled them together and ran on one cylinder reliably and sometimes two cylinders on occasion.
After a couple of years I started keeping my little boat at Great Kills Harbor. I met many boat owners there who would invite me out on there boats and I would give many owners a ride out to their boats on moorings. Seems like at that time boating was firmly ingrained in my skull. Years passed and many boats have come and gone, but my love for the ocean is still strong. Currently restoring my present boat and hope to be out on the water in a few more weeks.
Hope I haven't bored all of you with my ramblings. I left out a lot so as not to turn this into a novel.

[proparapi]

Originally Posted by robwilk37

picked up robin lee grahams "dove" when i was 11. read, re-read... i think a dozen times or so. done.

Read it. Discovered he lives in the same town as me. I want to meet him but don't want to be annoying. :-)

[Hydra]

I could not escape: my grandfather had been a Grand Banks fisherman (in the times of dories and schooners), both of my mother's brothers were officers, one in the Navy, the other in the Merchant marine, and my father had been bitten when he was a boy.

Alain

[wolfgal]

My dad. My dad took the family sailing on a friend's boat, a weekend trip. I slept in the cockpit with my sis, must have been about 9 years old. I remember the sound it made when i peed over the edge under the stars (i'm female, so it took what it takes to squat that way and contemplate the night sky at the same time). Anyway, I was damp and cold and didn't sleep all that well, but even with the pee running down my thighs, I loved everything about that weekend. My dad was bit; I was bit.

My dad and I were real close. We talked about it, dreamed about it, and he versed me in all of my future first-mate responsibilities. He was set on a 36'. He was going to take me to see it... Then one day, I saw him pull into the yard with a trailer, and, I can still see the beige lines of the 17' Benito Benito (motorboat) come into view. My heart sank. My dad didn't have the courage... He rarely ever did...

Anyway, I grew up as first-mate on a 17' motorboat. I'd prep it, load it, clean it, had every chore except for dealing with the gas. My dad and I really enjoyed it more than the rest of the family. The one time I did not accompany the family on the boat, it sank: no one thought to put in the plug.

[Joel E Felt]

At the age of twelve my dad got plans from the Popular Mechanics Magazine and built a 13 ft plywood "teacup". That6 started it. By the time I was 20 something he had moved up to a 6meter G-Cat (very fast). At 60 I got my first boat (25 ft Laguna)
Still have the G-Cat and Laguna, but now looking at Catalina 30. Gotta love it!!!


joel e felt

[Tetepare]

Grew up in boats, on boats, around boats.

I can remember going to the local boat dealer with my folks and dad surprised me by buying a 4hp Johnson for my tin boat (which used to be his tin boat.)

Summer after I graduated college and had a job I bought a 16' catamaran; didn't have cash so went to one of those 25% apr loan places and took out a loan. It was worth it.

My age-old friends stayed in the area, as did I. Now we're old. We all have boats. I can't imagine living away from water, no matter how beautiful the place might be. I'd like to visit Zion, Bryce, and all those beautiful places out west...but can't, since I'm on the boat, where I'd rather be.

Cruising the same area for decades sounds boring, but it's not to me. I've seen the changes, good, bad, and natural. I remember when there was no sand bar here, a sunken boat there; I remember when I watched a boat hit the big rock; I revisit places I've not been since childhood and the memories of fresh air, sunshine, and stunted island pines come flooding back. I see the dock under which I caught my first gar 40 years ago, and I visit once each year a small lagoon on which I grew up fishing. I remember the people, some friends gone, and a first infatuation with a young Canadian girl, and can remember her name today.

It's not just sailing, it's sailing my home port. I've seen Lamanai and Belmopan, Popocatepetl; Denali and Uluru. Angkor, Non Madol, and the pyramids. Guadalcanal, Peleliu, and Tarawa. Vava'u, Viti Levu, Rarotonga; Apia and Pago; Tahiti and Neumea. Oktoberfest, Dewali, Cinco de Mayo, Eid. But I still want to go home, and touch the sweet waters of my beloved run-down tourist town, and watch the sun set with aging friends, wondering where we're going to get some more youthful fool to do foredeck.

[Pelagic]

Found out very early at around age 4, that I could hold my breath twice as long my older brother when sharing the bath.

So in his twisted sense of humor he decided to void his bowels when I was going for the record!

Have been in search of cleaner waters ever since.

[dfelsent]

My great grand dad was a sailor. I was doomed from long before birth. Lucky me!

[geoleo]

...when I was a freshman in HS I used to walk the 4 miles to school to save the bus fare for other more interesting things. Then when walking home I would stop at a large magazine store on the way home. I would look at the boat mags (Yachting-Rudder-etc) and the sight of the white sails on and in the mags made me feel calm and happy.........it started thus.

[WestcoastCrown]

Grew up on the west coast of Canada with father in the navy. For him the water was the place where he worked and had no interest in boating for pleasure. Would go out fishing with pals in younger days and would turn green when the boat started rolling in the waves. Figured the water was not for me.

Years went by and a friend who was a member of a local yacht club asked me if I was interested in sailboat racing. Turned out it was Star class racing and the first time we went out a good breeze came up, the boat heeled over, we picked up speed and I was hooked.

Talked the wife into buying a small sailboat a couple of years later and the rest is history. Have owned our 34 foot for the last five years and it is a big part of our lives. We holiday on it, race on it and actually joined the yacht club. We take the grand daughters out whenever we can and they love it. I will ensure they will both know how to sail by the time they are teens.

Have chartered sailboats in the Med and the BVIs, great holidays that would not have happened without the introduction.

The fellow who introduced me to it is now on a two year journey , with his spouse, sailing down the eastern seaboard with plans to go through the Panama Canal and up the west coat.- haven't mentioned that one to the wife yet though....baby steps.

[boatpoker]

I was the first in four generations that had nothing to do with the sea. Being raised in Fraserbrugh, Scotland I did have an appreciation for the old north sea 40-60' fishing boats.

Driving through Barrie Ontario one day I got stopped in traffic next to the marina and instantly fell in love with the boat in the first slip (photo below).
As I sat there admiring it's north sea similarities a fella came along and put a for sale sign on the boat. I pulled over, talked to the guy for five minutes and bought the boat.

Two weeks later I quit my job, went back to school .... advanced piloting, meteorology, radar certification, Transport Canada Masters License, Transport Canada Appointed Tonnage Surveyor, ABYC Standards Certified, Certified Marine Corrosion Analyst and a SAMS Accredited Marine Surveyor. Still at it and still living aboard 25 yrs later. Best life changing buy I ever made.

[wolfgal]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

Found out very early at around age 4, that I could hold my breath twice as long my older brother when sharing the bath.

So in his twisted sense of humor he decided to void his bowels when I was going for the record!

Have been in search of cleaner waters ever since.

Holy crap! This is coming from the guy who quoted Russell Bertrand just days ago on another thread.... (a beautiful quote, by the way, thanks for sharing it). Your brother definitely shaped your tomorrow.

Found out I had extra-capacity lungs young too, during underwater races while swimming and during early-teen trumpet lessons: I could hold a note twice s long as everyone else. Won a quarter for it every Thursday.

[wolfgal]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

I was the first in four generations that had nothing to do with the sea. Being raised in Fraserbrugh, Scotland I did have an appreciation for the old north sea 40-60' fishing boats.

Driving through Barrie Ontario one day I got stopped in traffic next to the marina and instantly fell in love with the boat in the first slip (photo below).
As I sat there admiring it's north sea similarities a fella came along and put a for sale sign on the boat. I pulled over, talked to the guy for five minutes and bought the boat.

Two weeks later I quit my job, went back to school .... advanced piloting, meteorology, radar certification, Transport Canada Masters License, Transport Canada Appointed Tonnage Surveyor, ABYC Standards Certified, Certified Marine Corrosion Analyst and a SAMS Accredited Marine Surveyor. Still at it and still living aboard 25 yrs later. Best life changing buy I ever made.

This story is fantastic!

How is it that the very best decisions we can make in life can also be the ones we didn't think about?

[daletournier]

I come from zero sailing background, didn't even live near the water, but some how was attracted to yachts.

Approx 12 years ago I was in my business, recently divorced, over staff and customers, when a good south Africa mate that had cruised for several years came in , he'd crossed the Atlantic and the Indian ocean in a previous life.

He walked through the door and I said "Hyde, what's it like to go cruising?" he looked at me with such intensity and longing and said "Dale if you have the chance, run out, buy a boat and take of tommorow"..... at the time he'd given up his freedom for a mortgage, a business, a wife and kid. He longed to return to cruising (and since has, with family).

With in two weeks I'd purchased a very run down Wharram tiki 31 and the adventure begun, and within two years I was cruising full time, and somehow financially amongst other things it's worked out.

Sometimes you've got to have the courage to let go of the bank and see where the current takes you. Don't regret it for a second.

BTW when I took him down to see my new pride an joy (Wharram) he laughed his head off and said, "how I long for the return of those days when I looked at a bath tub and thought, this would make a fine ocean going vessel!!"