Gone Astray—Adrift—Asleep At the Wheel

This is an edited excerpt of a letter to a friend that I wrote a few years ago. I have recycled it here to come up with some blog copy to help avoid my blog atrophying.


I remember so well walking along San Pedro’s 7th street and stopping in awe at the window of S.W. Instruments, an old fashioned shop brimming with nautical lore and navigational apparatus. It was a very real place, a place where true seafarers brought their sextons and compasses for repair, bought their charts, and updated their coastal pilots. Plaster rather then drywall, wainscoting and compasses with bubbles in them (who has ever seen a GPS with a bubble?). Long shelves lined with classic tomes like Bowdages Practical Navigator & Ashley's Book of Knots & Masting & Rigging by Underhill. A few blocks down hill towards the harbor Marine Supply & Hardware was to be found. The uninspiring modern warehouse belied its history as a true Ships Chandlery. One of the staff at that time remembered selling the last of their inventory of cast iron try pots used in the shore based whaling industry. This was a world of mariners who had lives afloat the only boaters around were straw hats. Heady stuff that!

My first passion was large sailing ships. But sadly it didn’t take me long to realize that in the world of large sailing ships I would always be just a grunt, not a major player. That meant that no matter how much I loved a vessel I would always be vulnerable to being a castaway, left on the beach, abandoned.

Then I thought that small craft was the way of the future. Try as I may I was never able to make a living at that. Too expensive, too little a market. Or maybe I just blew it!

One day I found myself trying t o get a piece of teak to stick to fiberglass and realized my life had come to naught. Spending most of my day endeavoring to make rich peoples lives more comfortable.

Then I started to diversify. Finding new and interesting ways to make a living (computer graphics & cartography, and cooking) to add to my traditional skills. Now I am faced with finding a way to make these skills—both old and new—a positive force in the world.