Hello to the the sailing community.
I am going by the name of RedtheBear because thats what my wife calls me. I was once redheaded, but now its mostly white, and she, my wife, says I growl and grunt more than I speak. I don't think so but that's just my opinion.
I have been sailing small craft since before JFK was elected. I started crewing in Comets, Highlanders, and Thisels at local boat clubs. In the military I got to crew and then captain International 14's in Germany. A stint on the West coast introduced me to Hobie Cats and after a tour at the southeast asia war games I bought a Hobie 16 of my own and took it back to Florida. I found that beach sailing was fun but cruising was more my speed and after
rigging two pieces of 10" PVC pipe with endcaps to the cross beams I went coastal. Trips around the Gulf Coast totaly hooked me that the sailing world was the way to go.
When my wife and I were dating we would go with a friend of mine on his Vanguard 35, an MORC racer that he and sometimes I, had converted to a fantastic two couple cruser. It seems that we could always find three day weekends or holidays to go south to the Keys, Bahamas, and even once to
PR. Life was a cold beer, fresh lobster fine.
When my job in Florida ended we moved to south Alabama and the Hobie 16became my boat again and the kids crewed with me until they were grown and gone. Then I learned that a Hobie is a young persons boat and a single handing 50 year old does not belong out there and my wife's idea of fun was no longer a flying hull in a double trapize. So much for the Hobie.
After several partnerships in various Catalina's, a South Coast and a Tanzer I gave up on partnerships and traded the Hobie for a Venture 21. They were both in the same shape, neglected and sad, but I could single hand her and she gave me something to do and dream again.
Now I'm 69 and will be retiring, if I can, soon and the Gulf Coast is calling to me in it's soft cooing song, come to me, come to me.
I am fairly sure that I will never go around the world, or even across the Atlantic, but there are thousands and thousands of miles of coast and near by islands to see and besides that 'it's the trip, not the destanation'.
If my spelling offends some, I sorry; if my computer skills and maners are wrong, please over look and correct me. Its a very different world to me but I am willing to try to learn. I guess that why I love sailing so. The boats, the materials, the tecknowledgy have changed but we're still trying to hold the leafy branch so that the log will go where we want.
Redthe Bear
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- I don't suppose they've often actually met 
