On 15-Apr-14 10:48 PM, GILASAILR@aol.com wrote: Thanks for the invitation. It's very tempting but, my wife insists we first must finally get unpacked and the house in order after the move, before doing something new. We did goof-off yesterday afternoon to drive to Ennis, TX from Dallas, and drive their Texas Bluebonnet flower trail. Also met a charming lady at the tiny railroad museum in Ennis, who told me that she and her husband had 2000 acres of cotton, and gave me a short lesson in cotton farming. That is now part of my Learning to be a Texan education. Connie

Connie,

Thanks for the 'careening' reminder.(I forgot that one momentarily) I appreciate your sharing of skills.

If you ever get to central Arizona - I would be honored to take you for a sail - In the middle of the desert - on a Montgomery of course!

Take Care, Have Fun, Keep sailing - in memories or on 'other folks' boats'

The offer stands - I hope someone will take me out for a sail when I 'swallow the anchor'.

GO _gilasailr@aol.com_ (mailto:gilasailr@aol.com)

In a message dated 4/15/2014 9:29:24 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, chbenneck@gmail.com writes:

On 14-Apr-14 10:07 PM, bownez@juno.com wrote:

Hi Bones,

Thanks for your kind words of encouragement.

Having just passed 93, and counting, I'm afraid that all I have left are lots of fond memories of solving boat problems / learning all sorts of new things ( designing and installing a refrigeration system in our 29-footer), so that we always had ice cubes for our Martinis, while the rest of our sailing gang (with larger boats) were still lugging blocks of ice to their boats. It was my form of One-Upsmanship on my senior Pratt & Whitney Aircraft engineer sailing buddies.

Sailing expands your horizons / your experience / and thereby makes it so much more rewarding. As a beginning sailor life is filled with the fear of the unknown (your lack of knowledge of what the hell you are doing out there), but gradually experience begins to supplant fear. Now you know what you are doing. Oh there still are surprises (usually unpleasant) caused by local conditions in an area you hadn't encountered before, but you learn from the experience.

In the Adriatic a Bora - a fiercely blowing cold wind that sweeps down on the northern Adriatic out of the Alps for a few hours and then shuts off again had us dragging an anchor (we only had one on board a friends boat we were using), and our fin keel was firmly stuck in the soft mud bottom. Trying to row out the anchor and use that to pull us into deeper water didn't work. The anchor just plowed a furrow in the soft mud...., and the boat didn't move an inch. Now what?

Finally, I did an underwater survey (with mask and swim fins) to find the shortest path to deeper water. Then, using a hatch board as a shovel, I dug an underwater trench in front of the keel to deeper water.... We made it, but that experience made a firm believer out of me that a boat should always have at least 3 anchors on board.

If I had had a second one available I could have used it to careen the boat, reducing the draft, and getting to deeper water in easier fashion.

But (after it is all over) it was fun wasn't it?

Happy Easter and good sailing,

Connie & Katrina

...

My Dear Connie,

Once again, I relish your words of wisdom. You are so correct sir, the learning never ends, which is one of the main reasons I find the sport so enjoyable. Every sailing outing is different, it is an adventure and a challenge. A wise man learns from his experiences and his mistakes (hopefully). I'm so pleased you are still monitoring this fine list, don't you ever leave us. Bones ____________________________________________________________ The #1 Worst Carb Ever? Click to Learn #1 Carb that Kills Your Blood Sugar (Don't Eat This!) http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/534ca2ae7d5c222ae30a7st03vuc