My Resume

Started Sailing during the 1960’s on the Chesapeake Bay.

Owned and/or Sailed Boats up to an Irwin 39.

Heavy Weather Off-Shore Experience on the North Atlantic.

Did Not Write A "Sailing for Dummies" Book. Should Have!

Never Intentionally:

    Ran Aground, Fouled an Anchor, or Had One Drag!

    Carried Too Much Sail, Too Long.

    Kissed Pilings or Piers "Hello" While Docking.

    Had a Trailing Line Wrap Around a Prop.

Never Had an Encounter with a Crab Trap Along the ICW. Ain't Never Run It!

My first sailing experience, in the early ‘60’s, was on the Chesapeake Bay, out of Baltimore, MD.

Very first boat I owned was a heavy 18’ Bay built boat that had a full keel and a draft you wouldn’t believe! Paid 300 bucks for it. I forget exactly how deep it measured, but I had to re-do it two or three times before I was convinced. Even today, I still got my doubts that a small boat like that drew 4’-5’ of water!

Naw, I was stone cold sober. Well, maybe a couple of cold Boh’s to cool me off in the hot sun. No, I didn’t measure from the deck to the bottom of the keel!! That sucker would stand up to its sails like no boat I have sailed since. Bury the rail? Good luck!

Until 1973, when I got out of sailing, I owned and/or sailed boats up to a 36’ ketch. All the sailing was out of Baltimore or Annapolis, MD. Some of it was heavy weather stuff when we were too darned dumb to get the heck into a port, anchor, break out the cigars and beer, and wait out the storm!

I made my share of dumb mistakes, long before they came out with them books teaching dummies how to sail!

Coming out of Annapolis Harbor one night, with all kinds of deep water there just for the taking, I managed to ground a 36’er off Greenbury Point, where the Navy has all them radio transmission towers.

Had a nice gentle breeze, all sails up, everything going great. I was looking all around the horizon, up at the starry sky, just anticipating a great sail! Glanced in the direct of the towers, their red lights blinking on and off.

Now why weren’t they slowly moving astern? And why were the short waves blowing toward the bow?

Geeze! I’m glad it was the middle of the night and no one was aboard to see my red face. Hey, I learned from the experience. Ain’t never run a boat aground there since.

Hey! Twern’t my fault… I ran out of gas… No sails up… Live and learn! Maybe I should have written the sailing for dummies book!

The relatively shallow Bay could throw up some nasty waves. I remember hearing a Coasty report that there were 13’ waves blowing in the middle of the Bay, as I was doing a night run from Baltimore to Gibson Island, hugging the shoreline in the 18’er.

I didn’t hear that report until after I was in the Bay! Didn’t turn on the VHF until I got well offshore. Dumb!

I’m out there boogying and all I heard was surf and breaking waves off to port. It was so dark, I couldn’t see around me. Buried my nose in the chart and kept my eyes on the compass. Probably just as well!

During the 60’s, I had this wild, cockeyed dream about getting a suitable boat and sailing around the world. Sigh… when you’re young, you often have dreams that turn out to be very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. Mine was like that. The reality of making a day-to-day living got in the way. Meanwhile, I did all the book learning I thought would be needed. Celestial nav, collecting info about ports on the way, reading the accounts of others, pouring over sailboat specs and drawings… Other nav stuff I knew because I had been flying airplanes for years.