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Sacramento, California, United States
so salty pieces of coral from surfing Hawaii in the 60's and 70's getting reef pounded living in my body fall through my skin from time to time!

sailing to Oahu

Jimi Hendrix was playing on Oahu. I had never sailed. Surfed Mexico, California, Hawaii! Aw, how hard could it be to sail 90-110 miles from Kauai to Oahu? Piece of cake, right? Remember it was the 60's! This is so bad. We thought we were looking at Kaiena Point,Ohau, knowing we weren't going to make the concert! But at least we were in site of Oahu-wrong! Coy, who had never sailed before, me,who had never sailed before, jeff and Abbott etc. We were looking at the sleeping giant on Kauai! We had done three-sixty's in the night! We sailed on the only tri-marran I've ever sailed on ( except later ) in my life, missed the concert! It was at the Waikiki Shell Ampitheater ( Moon eclipsed . We finally made Nawilwili Harbor! The Skipper tried to give us his boat saying, " It's trying to kill me"! We watched him go stark raving mad not even realising that had we got caught in the channel current we were on our way to Japan! Remember it was the 60's and we were going to see Hendrix. I left out some of the good stuff but I will make up for it later!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

letter-incarcerated son

Well Son,
     What can I say?  " You are there and I am here"!  No matter where you go, there you are.
It kind of keeps you in the moment doesn't it?
     I look at life like a boat moving through the water.  I am the boat.  The bow of the boat divides
the water in front of it as it moves towards a destination.  I know where the boat is going because I am driving.  I know it will arrive but I can't tell you exactly where or when!  In front of the boat are to many intangibles; weather, swells, people, physical obstacles, random events interfere with my plotted course.
My heading sometimes is changed or affected by the bombardment of random, unplanned events. 
However, the boat continues with course changes which means the destination changes also....
     The boat leaves a wake.  Kind of like a record of it's passage.  This wake has a ripple or butterfly effect.
When it arrives on shore it is like a breaking wave that little ants paddle out to on their surf boards and
either rip or wipe out, according to their abillity.
      The wake of the boat is actually more important than the boat's destination.  The wake of a good sized
stink boat is large enough to damage other vessels at anchor or slipped because of it's desire for speed.
If a stink boat follows-the Rules of the Road-, Maritime Law, No one gets hurt and no boats are damaged.
For instance:  Sailboats under sail have right of way over any motor driven  vessel.  But and this is a big but!
One must always remember that even though one has right of way- the real Law of the Ocean is--
MIGHT IS RIGHT.............Never forget this son.
      When my sailboat is 1,000 miles from anywhere and I am sailing through major shipping lines and
a Matsun container ship is screaming along at 25 to 34 knots intersecting with my course heading, who gives
way?  Navigation 101-duh!  Thus might is right.  With emphasis!
     As it turns out, even though I am the boat that has chosen a destination and I have the appearance
of knowing where I am going, I don't!
     The wake of my vessel effects people, places and things of which I do not have an awareness of.
My hope (really) is that the ants enjoyed the ride but I can't and will not be responsible for ants in my wake!
If they didn't like the big surf at least they know it now.  Ride smaller waves!
      What sailing comes down to my son is-you are the boat!  It's not where the boat is going and it's not
where the boat has been!  It's where the boat is!


                                 " The Journey Is The Destination" son...................

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

reefs ahead cap

Anonymous said...

realy good writing,
lets have some kauai surf stories

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