Messing about in boats

[Tom Keevil]

We are all familiar with the Wind in the Willows quote "Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing—absolute nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing,"

The rest of the quote is less well known, and is reassuring to those of us who spend more time sailing than in keeping our boats sparkling.

"In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not. Look here! If you've really nothing else on hand this morning, supposing we drop down the river together, and have a long day of it?"

[Jim Cornwell]

Kenneth Grahame summed up the boating life pretty well, didn't he. Nobody has done it better, or more economically, I think!

[jbenagh]

Thanks for sharing! Been kinda like that for me during the recent time when Christine C is locked away. Fortunately the dinghies await! They usually get the bare minimum maintenance but this year should be much better.

Jeff

[mashenden]

There are few upsides to this damn COVID-19 virus, but one is having more time socially distancing myself by working on Nautica. I can get in my car, drive to the yard, work on the boat, get back in the car, drive back to my house, work in the shop, then "rinse and repeat". I never get within 100' of anyone. Hell yeah its essential.

I may call my next boat "Social Distancing"

[Keith]

Matt,

That pretty much sums up my last few weeks with the only exception being the rainy days of which there have been many where I just work in the shop. The boat yards on the Cape all seem to be launching but not to many in April as per usual. I'm planning on a May 1st launch. Just have to finish the rudder repair, install the rudder post stuffing box, paint the boot top and wax the hull then MOONDANCE will be ready. Those are of course the mandatory launch list items but there are many more non essential that I will knock off before May 1st.

Keith

[mashenden]

Some years ago there was a "Non Sequitur" comic strip that showed a similar sequence of events. The first cartoon was of a car driving and a sign that said "Marina 350 miles". The driver was happily whistling. Next one shows the driver whistling while pulling into the marina. 3rd block shows him getting something out of the back of the vehicle, then walking up the dock with a bucket, still whistling. When he gets to the boat, he tosses the content of the bucket onto the boat - its money . Then he turns around and heads back home, still whistling.

Its much better as a cartoon than a description, but it seems like a parallel to "Wind in the Willows"..

I have that brown aged cartoon on my desk because I gave my daughter the same love for boating disease. They bought a Lord Nelson Victory Tug a few years back, and on the boat was a cut-out of this cartoon. They got the boat, I got the cartoon , and some fond memories bringing the boat from Upstate NY to VA.

That is her in my avatar sailing my first sailboat, a Seychelles 30, a woodie made in 1964 by American Marine in Hong Kong. That pic was taken sometime in the mid 90s.