Hello to all. I'm new here and once again bitten by the sailing/ cruising bug.
My first sailing experience occurred a couple of weeks after walking down a
dock in Gig Harbor WA and spotting a pretty little
boat with a "For Sale" sign hung on the bow rail. I contacted the owners, bought the
boat and a copy of Royce's Sailing manual. What more could I need. Never set foot on a
sail boat, grew up in Wyoming, couldn't swim, but what the hell, I was pilot, lived through the Viet Nam experience, how hard could this be?
The first indication that I was into something strange came when the sellers, a couple from
San Francisco, cryed when we closed the deal. I was equally shocked when the first time I went to the new acquisition I found a bottle of wine and a lengthy note describing the joys the couple had experienced on "JUMBI" a
Cal 25.
The Gods are kind to idiots and drunks. I sailed Jumbi all around
Puget Sound venturing over 200 nm west of Tatoosh Island at one delusional period. Try as I did I couldn't sink Jumbi or do away with myself.
I was allowed to crew on a Valiant 40 on the Victoria,
Canada to Maui run around 1980. That completely set the hook, the sailing life for me. However, I did learn that a large boat in
Puget Sound became very small a day or two past the entrance of the Straits of Juan of Fuca.
But alas, reality intervened to
work it was with one minor deviation, a 1000 hp 46' Post Sport Fisherman out of Gulf Shores, AL. I was looking for a
sail boat when I bought the Post.
Did I mention that I am easily distracted?
Back to the sailing life, a little more stable and wiser. Maybe.