"Bill Kearney" wrote in
t:

Every time you go sailing in the Catalina, start a stopwatch

If all you want is the journey that's fine. But if you actually want
to get somewhere and not have it take all morning/afternoon/days at a
time, then there's little use for sailing. Sure, you're not spending
it on fuel, but for many people their time's valuable and they don't
want to spend it futzing with lines and sails.



If you "want to get somewhere and not have to take all
morning/afternoon/days at a time", you need a PLANE, or maybe a
motorhome, not a boat. All boats under 100 gallons per hour are slower
than hell!

Hilton Hotels are cheaper than driving a power boat to Y, paying to dock
it or living like a hermit, then driving it back at $4.20/gallon. The
food's better and so isn't the service....not to mention not having to
walk down the dock or dingy ashore in the pouring rain.....

I thought boating was all about the journey (well, and the sea stories).
God I hate to go sailing with anyone aboard who has to "be somewhere" at
a certain day. Ruins the whole trip.

We got becalmed 90 miles S of Charleston. There wasn't enough air moving
to even make a hanky move. Cap'n Geoffrey asks me what to do. "I'm
going to take a nap before dinner.", was my response. "What about the
wind?", he continued. "Have the watch wake me if it ever comes back."
The ocean was as smooth as glass, just west of the western edge of the
Stream we had been sailing all night in with a nice breeze over 14 knots
SOG. "It'll come back, some day. I'll be rested up by then. I have to
be back by next month to pay the bills.", I said to the group as I
unrolled my sleeping sack in the v-berth. 6 hours later, the adrenaline
addicts got too antsy and Cap'n Geoffrey started the engine. That was
the end of the Gulfstreamer Race to Charleston for Lionheart. Pity, with
our huge handicap on the "Slow Boat to Nowhere", we might have come in
very high up the cruiser class....

We had plenty of food and booze aboard. Man what a beautiful calm day of
rest gone to waste. Americans are in too much of a damned hurry!

--
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.