Sailing is a thinking man’s game. The equipment is complex and so are the sailing skills. And like all human endeavors there are a host of actors, some good and most of the rest? Well, we’ll wish those bad actors a safe voyage as they go about hazarding their own lives at sea. If you look at a big ship you’ll always see that they come equipped with lifeboats. A ship of any size can sink, and any sinking ship is going down because of human miscalculation. If it is equipment failure it is a human that failed to manufacture, maintain or replace the equipment. If the ship hits something it is because a human being wasn’t keeping watch. If it goes aground it means a pilot wasn’t steering the boat in the right direction. And of course
if it is a hurricane, tsunami, lightening storm, collision with an aggressive whale, asteroid falling from the sky or other marvelous acts of god that get us killed at sea we can take comfort in knowing that at least in this case it is our own damn fault for deceiving ourselves into believing that such a thing could never happen to us, those kinds of things happen to those other people. Relatively safe voyaging is never perfect, but for those who simply must take to sea it beats never going because of what you know about mankind. In fact many go to sea because of what they know of mankind. Obtaining good training, finding the best information, and identifying the best most experienced sailing mentors you can find is going to prove crucial to your life. As much as I esteem Bernard Moitessier it should be duly noted he crashed one boat into Mauritius, lost a second in the Caribbean and the last in Cabo San Lucas when Joshua was swept ashore at anchor by Hurricane Paul. So, by all means take what I have to say with a grain of salt, think this through on your own, be careful, you’ve been warned, my hero was a three time loser.
BANKRUPT HEART THE SECOND NOVEL
“So, Mike, tell me when was the
last time you were talked down off of a limb you climbed out on, you know what
I mean? According to my understanding on these matters, a man has to do what’s
in here,” Nick pointed to his temple, “and down there,” he pointed somewhere
south of his belt buckle, “they both get to have a say so, they get to speak
their piece, about what a man has to do, and then once its settled, just let
the chips fall where they may.”
Bankrupt Heart Copyright © 2011 by Dana Smith
