|
Time for a confession; I have a boat fetish. Whenever I'm in an
airport, getting ready to get on an airplane, I stop in the bookstore and pick up a boating magazine. Boating World,
Power & Motor Yachts, Trailer Boats, Cruising World, you name it, I can't get enough
of it. At lunch, I'm as likely to take a tuna fish sandwich and
drive out to the Great Salt Lake Marina to just hang out near the water
and look at the boats. When it's winter, too cold to be on my boat,
I'm daydreaming about sunny spring days on Lake Powell, or warm summer
evenings below the Tetons on Jackson Lake. As a kid, I can remember
hanging out in the bathtub until the water was cold and my toes looked
like shriveled, pale prunes, shoving a plastic boat back and forth and
marvelling at the wake. I dream of a life on the open ocean,
exploring the world from the deck of a boat. I want to travel the
inside passage to Alaska, navigate the Panama Canal and explore the Amazon
river.
Now I don't come
from a boating family, I've spent the vast majority of my life landlocked
in Utah, but somewhere way back in my lineage, I think there was a sailor
or a fisherman or a Viking or some other sort of seafaring
adventurer. As I look forward to a day when my dream of sailing off
to explore the oceans of the world becomes a reality, I worry about my
lack of experience, training and all the other real world tests that a
true sailor must pass before heading off to places like Bora Bora and the
Marquesas. You see, I'm a powerboater now. I can only wonder
at the terms sailors use and the names of all the various and sundry
doodads that clutter the tops of their vessels, but the way I look at it,
life is a constant process of continued learning, and I look forward to
the education.
In this section,
I'm going to be working hard to make sure that there is plenty of useful
information for fellow powerboaters, as well as those who rely on the wind
for their propulsion. I've divided this section of the site into two
main areas, Powered Boating and Sail Boating so that you can easily
navigate directly to the stuff you're most interested in. But I
would offer a suggestion to you, whether you're a pure sailor or a
powerboat cruiser, check out the other section. You might find a new
interest, or maybe you'll just pick up a trick or two that might come in
handy some time.
|
|
