Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than those you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
―Mark Twain
Shady Lady
It has been said–I forget who by–that there are three kinds of people in the world: the haves, the have-nots, and the have-yachts. I have very recently joined the third subset; and I can highly recommend it to all who enjoy the exhilerating sensation of freezing, gale-driven salt spray in their faces and seeing their wealth evaporate like a pool of ether on a hotplate.
Shady Lady is a modest vessel, but if I’m lost at sea in her she will undoubtedly be referred to in the news stories as a ‘luxury yacht.’* She is nearly thirty years old, having been launched in 1992, and therefore lacks some of the mod cons that are taken for granted on more up-to-date vessels; but her hull and rigging are sound and her shortcomings can be easily rectified by the application of eyebrow-curling amounts of cash.
We intend to sail her around the coast of South Africa for a while, then to the Mediterranean via St. Helena island and the Azores; after that we’ll play it by ear. There are so many interesting places to go to on this planet that we will have to be picky.
But the point is not to provide us with a free (ha!), carbon-friendly mode of transport to sight-seeing destinations. It is rather an expression of ultimate freedom–the freedom to go where we like, when we like; the only limiting factor being the weather, which no man controls. How insignificant are the petty shenanigans of politicians, or the ridiculous posturings of priests, when our horizon is limitless, and the universe consists of us, the dolphins and the albatrosses?
* I don’t want to bore with technical details, but those interested can find them here.
Grumpy Old Man 