Sigh!

After having read Captain Skippy's recent post describing
his lack of progress getting back underway after a two-
year, forced hiatus, I felt a tinge of sadness.

I felt a little sad because Skippy's post served to remind
me that my prediction from years ago as to his being too
encumbered to be a sailor for long seems to have come true.

While I have few regrets about realistic predictions, I
do tend to feel sad when women continue to get in the way
of the life decisions of their men. Poor Skippy, he managed
to dig himself a hole so deep that he will likely never be
able to crawl out of it. His life is simply too cluttered
to ever be a sailor. What with all the unnecessary
encumbrances he's crammed into his yacht, combined with
all the encumbrances his first mate foists off onto him,
poor Skippy has no chance of ever being anything more than
a boat and systems repairman as well as a Honey-do list
slave. One wonders how a woman can claim to love her mate
on the one hand yet hinder his happiness by enslaving
him into being some kind of lubberly house husband and
mother-in-law nursemaid.

So much baggage for one man to carry. It's simply not
possible for anybody but an Atlas type to heft it. It's
sad because even the few hours of sailing time in a year
Captain Skippy manages to put in are filled with thoughts
of his myriad, non-sailing obligations. This sort of thing
generally leads to high stress levels and an eventual
heart attack or nervous breakdown. Either is a sad end
to a man who could have been an inspired and inspiring
sailor had he only been able to leave all the unnecessary
baggage ashore where it belongs.

--
Sir Gregory