Vintage Attitude: Need it, Or Want it?

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420008_275369622537490_456985160_nI woke up to the tinkling of water against the hull of the Lost Soul, and as I came out of my stupor I remembered where I was.Ā  Anchored in Pago Pago, American Samoa.Ā  We’d been there about a week, and were planning on leaving in a few days. I pulled on my shorts and walked out of my aft cabin into the galley and threw on a pot of coffee.Ā  While I waited for it to brew I went up onto the deck to see what kind of day I could expect.Ā  The sun was shinning and it was hot.Ā  A typical day in the tropics.

As I surveyed my surroundings I saw a new boat had come in during the night.Ā  Did I say boat?Ā  More like a dream.Ā  She sat at anchor a few hundred yards from where I was.Ā  A traditional sailing ketch, but larger than any I had ever seen.Ā  A hundred and forty feet on deck.Ā  A beautiful dark blue hull etched with gold leaf.Ā  The brass work was blinding and the varnish was pretty much the same.Ā  Wow!Ā  What a dream boat.Ā  I wanted it.Ā  She was on her maiden voyage out of New Zealand.Ā  Her little-sister ship was Signe, which I had lusted after a few years earlier.

A few years later I learned that her state-of-the-art carbon fiber masts had broken off shortly after our encounter in Samoa, and she had been laid up in the yard a long time for a re-fit.Ā  This happened while I was on my way to Tonga, on my trusty old boat.

When we were leaving Tonga a few weeks later, we stopped in Niuitapatupo, the northernmost Tongan Islands.Ā  While there we ran into some folks that were trying to raise a schooner that had sunk in the channel a few months earlier.Ā  It turns out that the boat they were trying to raise was Golden Dawn, a 103’ three masted schooner that I had tried to buy just before I found the Lost Soul, and wanted so bad I could taste it, but was unable to afford it.Ā  Now she lay on the bottom, off a remote island in the south Pacific, while I sailed my trusty old boat away and into the sunset.

Over the ensuing years, as I cruised the world, there were many times when I would see something that I ā€œjust had to have.ā€Ā  But somehow I didn’t get these things.Ā  And after awhile I learned from these experiences something that has made my life a whole lot easier.

Back in my ā€œbuy everythingā€ days, when I had a house and a garage, I just had to have all the ā€œstuff.ā€Ā  A better car, a bigger TV, a louder stereo, the latest clothes, the fastest motorcycle, and of course, the biggest boat.Ā  After moving aboard, over 25 years ago, I realized just what all that crap was worth.Ā  Ziltch! For over fifteen years I stored it in a garage, while I sailed the world.Ā  After returning to that garage a few years ago I had a huge garage sale.Ā  I realized none of that stuff had any meaning.Ā  Oh, yeah, there were a ton of photos I kept, and the first printings of the books I’ve written, and copies of the hundreds of magazines I wrote for; but in all, nothing else meant anything anymore.

To put this into a vernacular that all can understand, it’s kinda like dating.Ā  When you find someone who fits into your lifestyle and becomes a part of your life, you opt for a long-term relationship.Ā  Yeah, you’ll see a sleek beauty now and then and appreciate her form and beauty, but that doesn’t mean you have to own ā€˜em all.Ā  You are much happier with your life if you find the right one, and enjoy her to the fullest, while watching the others sail by.

I learned to relate that lesson to boats.Ā  Yeah, there are eye-popping models out there, and when I see them I appreciate what I see.Ā  Many are sleeker than the Lost Soul.Ā  Most are faster, all have something that I like, because I appreciate boats.Ā  But I have an attachment to my boat.Ā  When I approach her from shore I feel a swelling inside when I first spot her.Ā  When I am aboard I love the way she feels.Ā  I know every flaw, and have learned to not only live with them, but they have become a part of what makes her special.

I have learned a very important lesson from all of this.Ā  I am happy with my boat.Ā  I appreciate every flaw and nuance, every leak and every imperfect line.Ā  Even when I see a newer style sail by, I feel a comfort with what I have.

It is far more important to want the things that you have, then to get the things you want!

1 COMMENT

  1. Bob,

    I loved Attitudes and Lattitudes and your two boks that I bought and Read:"Confessions of a Lost Sioul" and Biker to Sailor.

    It just seems to me a shame that you had to live seven full decades to realize that it's better towant what you have. It's true for me too, nearly through my 70's.

    John Stoffel
    s/v Morgan 34 "Windfall" (1965)
    Mamoraneck, NYo

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