On Tue, 19 Oct 2004 12:52:37 -0400, "Doug Dotson"
wrote:

Absolutely. Cruising can be very stressful for the reasons you
state.

But at least there's a point to the stress...a safe and successful
passage.

It also has some very nice rewards. I found the ICW
especially annoying and thereful stressful. Not all parts of
it, of course, but much of it.

Unlike, say, wanting powerlessly for a bureaucrat to do his job on
land, at least you have the option of going offshore G.

The autonomy of sailing for me is the payoff for the stress of the
responsibility. Sure, it can get very, very bad, but if your last
thought is "guess I should have reefed earlier", is that not a better
end than dying on a gurney in a hospital hallway, wondering "where's
that nurse?"

Not to be morbid, as fewer sailors drown by far than office workers
die in car accidents, but the lessons of the sea are far less
ambiguous than those of the shore.

R.