Half-Off Sail

Most people tender fantasies about the sea. They either want to live near it, swim in it, boat on it, eat from it or just watch. The ever-changing sea: beautiful, frightening, soothing, always engaging. It touches everyone. It is a workshop for fantasies. Generally, the fantasies are filed under dreams and dreams are rarely acted upon. Something always works to prevent dreams from coming true; not enough money, time, fear, too much reality. This is a story of a dream becoming a reality. It is true down to the number of spots on the fish. It starts from a chance meeting in a class room that takes two would-be adventurers on a bike trip that ended in failure. That failure led to think up new adventures, which led to the development of a paddle wheel boat that turned into a sailboat. It covers the time spent learning to sail from scratch to taking a newly purchased boat to the Bahamas for the sail of a life time. Ti recounts the loss of friends, hours of frustration, the first night on the open sea in a storm, being lost, losing the engine, turning back and eventually trying to cross from Florida to the Bahamas once again. There is the success of the second crossing, the joy of ailing, learning to spear fish for food, the sapphire days and diamond nights among the island and the people along the way. It is a story for everyone that ever wanted to buy a boat and cruise to a dream come true in distant harbors but never did.