It's just after midnight and my thoughts about today kept my brain racing so I had to sit down at the computer and type another blog. Today was like any other day.....
Dianne and I took a little road trip today to visit Fishermen's Village in Punta Gorda and then on to meet up with Captain Ron at Charlotte Harbor Boat Storage where he is working on a vessel. The day was sunny, warm, and as usual...beautiful. Charlotte Harbor Boat Storage is a boat yard in a very obscure place on the north end of Charlotte Harbor. Its the type of boat yard that allows you to store and work on your boat without all the rules and "stuffiness" of other boat yards. Star of Orion has spent some time there. They allow you to work on your dream. And boy...there were alot of dreams there today.
The boat yard was overstuffed with sailboats and some powerboats. As we drove through, I couldn't believe it. It was like a buffet of boats. Never before did I ever see so many boats on the "hard" as we say. They were lined up like soldiers in formation. Perfectly placed, but not able to move. I noticed alot of "For Sale" signs. What was going on here? Was there some sort of sailboat flu outbreak?
We found where Ron was working on "Last Chance". "Last Chance" is a classic 40 footer undergoing alot of work in preparation for a trip all the way to Jamaica where it will then be loaded on a ship and taken to South America. Captain Ron will be skippering it from Florida to Jamaica with a stop in Cuba. Ron's on the final lap of the preparation and will be departing in the next month or so.
I asked Ron why there were so many boats in the yard. "The economy" he said. "Marinas are getting too expensive also". It seems unbelievable to me that so many boats are there. Sailing is just far to important to me and I always assume that most others feel the same way. Let's be honest. A boat is much more than just a vehicle for the water. Those boats sitting there were someone's dream. Their escape from reality. Their passion. Their expression. Their ability to connect. How did this happen? I felt like I was witnessing slow death.
Just then, as we were talking with Ron, an older gentleman popped up from the cabin of a beautiful 40 foot sailboat next to us. Like many of the boats in the yard it needed quite a bit of work to make it seaworthy again. The man's frustration was very apparent on his face and in his movements. I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. I didn't know a damn thing about him or his boat. He could have just been having a bad day. I do know this though...he wanted the work and the frustration to be over. He wanted that boat in the water. The sails raised and the shoreline disappearing. He wanted to stop dreaming.
Everyone has friends and family members who are in a bad spot right now. Sometimes the thing that keeps them going is their dream. The thing or place that will make them the happiest. You wish you could wave a magic wand over them, make it all better, and make that dream come true. It's strange how that visit to the boat yard affected me. It looked like a storage facility of dreams.
If I had a million dollars, I'd empty that facility.
Fair Winds,
Capt Dan
