wrote

I figured I would keep land in sight and hop from port to port every
evening and not even try to play in bad weather, but this is why I'm
here to learn.

Willingness to learn is a great contributor to longevity and happiness.

First lesson:

Rocks and even sand are harder than water so they do a lot more damage when
your boat hits them.

Waves in shallow water are much more dangerous than waves in deep water.

When the **** hits the fan, you can't always make the boat go in the
direction you want it to go.

One of the most famous by-words in nautical tradition is "Searoom". The
illusion of safety from being able to see the shore is a dangerous one on
most coasts south of New England.

I hope you learn better and faster than you appear to in the area of keeping
customers happy (even if they are wrong) from what I've seen posted. I
mention this only because there is actually a strong correspondence between
the attitudes and judgement required for a sucessful outcome in each area.
That gets into more philosophy than I have time for right now but let me
tell you, the sea is a lot less forgiving than a ****ed off lady with an old
VW.

--
Roger Long