I think everybody who reads Bruce in Bangkok's bitter and jealous replies to
my posts that have sailing content can readily see how his replies have no
sailing content at all. Could this have anything to do with the fact that
the man has been languishing in Thailand for over thirty-five years now
while his ill-found motorsailer slowly turns to rubbish while tied to a dock
and serves only as a slum residence.

Bruce's ignorance even extends to not understanding how a little auxiliary
outboard on the transom allows a blue water sailor to negotiate narrow
channels that might harbor adverse winds and currents. Bruce doesn't
understand how this very motor can be removed from the transom in a couple
of minutes and stowed away below out of sight and out of mind until it might
be needed at the other end of an offshore or coastal voyage.

It's difficult for an old man with 35-year-old memories to even comprehend
what a small, modern, 4-stroke outboard engine can do. People like Bruce
remain stuck in the antique Perkins diesel or Atomic 4 gasoline bilge engine
era.

But, I try to humor the Rube along as best as I can as I understand all the
man has is antique memories and most of those involve failure to complete
his planned circumnavigation. All these years that have passed since his
venture ground to a halt and he ended up stranded in a third-world backwater
have only served to give him plenty of time to rationalize his failings at
sailing.


Wilbur Hubbard