The Beginning

Hurricane season is upon us.  Rather, it's upon the people of the southeast.  My only direct connection with a hurricane was Andrew.  It hit south Florida 20 years ago and bent a sapling in my front yard. Andrew also took my boat, FIDELIO, and lifted her onto the concrete dock at the Matheson Hammock Marina in South Miami.  The rudder was destroyed, one of the pulpit stanchions was forced through the fiberglass of the foredeck, and the deck-stepped mast had toppled over.  The strong fiberglass hull of a Pearson Triton  held together while the O'Day in the next slip beat herself to death against a piling and sank only a few feet away.

FIDELIO had been up for sale, so I guess you have to say that her demise and Andrew was the beginning. The insurance money I received I invested, and the proceeds  gave me the wherewithal to buy a Westsail 32, now the DELTA BELLE.  In the interim I had a little 18' yawl, a Drascombe Lugger.  Look up Webb Chiles to see what that was about..

Now this ain't going to be no fancy schmanzy blog. (my IT skills aren't up to that yet)  It may even end here, but I hope to get it to a standard set by some of the other sailing bloggers I follow.  I've got a few family and friends who have said they would like to know what I'm doing. Like TV and censorship, you don't have to read this.  You can simply turn it off, tune out, or whatever.  

If, however, something herein piques your interest or makes you want to read more, please do let me know.

I'm experimenting with style, photography...the whole range of rhetoric.  My wife accuses me of using more complex words when simpler ones will do, but that's  how I run.  I've been reading about sailing for so long that I tend to use a nautical term when I think it's appropriate, so you can either look it up or ask me what I think I meant.  If I'm off base, my intentions were good.

I leave for New Orleans, Mandeville, and the DELTA BELLE on September 9.   By then Hurricane Isaac will have come and gone.  We'll see if this blog weathers the storm.