Where I am, who I am and where I've been

Part One   Where am I? 

I am home on our forty foot trawler power boat. I've been a sailor since 1961, that's fifty eight years. That's a long time. I started sailing in Lake Greenwood at Naval Ammunition Depot, NAD, Crane Indiana. What the hell was I doing in southern Indiana while being a sailor in the IS Navy is another story for another time. We had a 17 foot fiberglass Rebel sloop in special services and I kept the sails and rudder in the trunk of my 1957 Plymouth Fury. Why, you may ask? That is another story for another time. Lake Greenwood was about five miles long and about a mile wide. It was my own private lake. After two years in Indiana, I was transferred to Missile Technician B School for a year and on to Coronado by San Diego on an aircraft carrier. I really didn't have any time back then to much in the line of recreation until I ended up at New Construction in Seattle. I rented twenty two footers and sailed on Lake Washington while in Seattle.

My destroyer was commissioned at Bremerton and we headed to Long Beach. While in Long Beach I used to rent Sabats which are eight  foot sailing dinghies at Naples Island. On our first deployment to WestPac, we, the ship went aground at Midway island. Being the screws, propellers to you land lubbers, got their tips knocked out of balance requiring us to be towed back to Pearl Harbor by an ocean going tug. While waiting for an entire week for our tug to arrive at Midway, we, the sailors had nothing but time on our hands. On the third day, we had managed to drink the entire island dry. The beer lasted two days, the hard stuff another day and the we were getting antsy. There was a little used beach shack on the island and it had a few little sailing dingies stowed away. I and my mate checked one out and we proceded to circumnavigate Midway Island. 

After my eight plus years in the Navy, I ended up living in Glendora, California. There I bought a 22 foot trailerable Venture sailboat which I named Tumwater. Probably few of you know the significance of the name Tumwater and if you don't that will have to be yet another story for another time. I had Tumwater for two, or three, years and used it a lot. We went everywhere using her not only as a boat but also as a travel trailer. Then came divorce number one and we sold the house and the boat. I used the procedes to buy a Columbia 28 in 1975. Tumwater II was a real boat, inboard engine, wheel steering and I lived aboard her for two years. 

In 1978, we bought a brand new forty one foot Yankee Clipper ketch which was built in Tiawan. We named her Bianco, yup another story, and she was huge. She even had a seperate crews quarters. 

Four years and another divorce later, Bianco was sold to friends and I bought a thirty eight foot, on deck, forty three feet overall schooner. Her name was Merrymaid and she was famous being she was Downeaster hull number one so I didn't rename her. Merrymaid is Middle English and is what morphed into the word mermaid. I had her for thirty five years and lived aboard her for over thirty of those years. I loved that boat and I still do but due to my two strokes I found that I didn't have the mental capacity to handle her with her five sails.

Which brings me around to the dark side which us, yes us, sailors call power boats. She is a forty foot Cheoy Lee trawler and it is like living in a floating condominium. Her name was Queen Bea when we bought her. While we were on the hard, I renamed her to Phase II. Yes, there is another story here. 
That's where I am right now. Aboard our little ship, or should I say yacht. In case you don't know the difference between a boat and a yacht. The yacht has an icemaker. 
Also, a boat is a vessel that can be hoisted aboard a ship. 

To be continued.