Vernon asked if he could occasionally add some words of wisdom and I said sure…So here is the Captain speaking.. 

He that would go to sea for pleasure, would go to hell for a pastime. -Old Sailor Proverb.

If you have been following Terri’s blog you have seen that sometimes sailing can be mean, cruel, nasty and brutish.  Double-handing a large boat such as Encore on a cold, pitch black night, in a windy, confused sea state is definitely not for the faint of heart.  A certain amount of fatalism is required.  I have done my fair share of night sailing, both racing and cruising and I have always been glad when dawn lightens the sky.  Having said that, one of my most treasured sailing memories came crossing the Gulf of California  on a  race to Matazlan.  It was a windy night but t-shirt warm and we  were jib reaching.  When it was my turn at the helm, a beautiful harvest moon began to rise exactly down the course line and stayed on the bow for my entire trick.  Perfection.

Do such moments offset the cold dark nights? For me they do.  As I pen this, we are securely docked in a beautiful Puerto Vallarta marina.  I spent the morning doing boat chores and tidying the boat.  This afternoon, Terri and I took the dinghy up a beautiful mangrove-lined channel past secluded homes. The mangroves were full of yellow and orange iguanas.  Terri took a hundred pictures, I got to steer the dinghy.  We both had rum drinks.  Perfection.

There is nothing-absolutely nothing-half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.-Ratty in the Wind and the Willows.