Change of command

Saturday was a sad day at the Crazy Cave, friends and neighbors....I rowed out to Reprieve for the last time that morning under a clear blue sky. I've known for a while now that with my move to Orlando there's just no way I would be able to give her the attention she needs. For the last several weeks I've been looking for a new skipper for her, preferrably someone who has kids and loves to sail but just doesn't have the means to get into a boat. With the limited time I'll have in the next three years I'll be spending time on Moon getting her ready for The Trip, and I just can't let Reprieve sit on her mooring without being there to do the maintenance she needs and keep her in good shape....which was made abundantly clear when I got out to her. The pirates had been there some time over the last two weeks, broken the hasp on the companionway, and looted her. They took the outboard, the VHF, the CD player, the batteries, and one of the solar panels. They made off with the portable depth finder and anemometer, the inverter, boat hook, tool boxes, compass, barometer, clock, light fixtures, life jackets, charts, dishes, food, and rum. Damn it they took the rum! They also took a couple of changes of clothes I had stashed in the hanging locker and all the back issues of Latitudes & Attitudes magazine. And left beer cans and cigarrette butts in the cockpit. It hurts, man. It really hurts. It's bad enough that I'm letting her go to someone else, which, corny as it sounds, feels almost like I'm betraying her (although she's going to a good man). But for her to have been violated like this in the last days that she was in my care, after as much fun and escape as she had provided me, just ain't right. I'm not normally one to wish ill to anyone else, but I hope those bastards get drunk on that rum and fall down go boom. They did leave the sals, though. And two anchors and all of the sheets & halyards and the tiller. She still sails! And the man who's taking over her care and command is a good guy, a lifelong Keys person who will enjoy her and take care of her. I'm sure he and his kids will have many adventures on her, and she'll take good care of them along the way like she did for me. It was hard to leave her and row back to shore, but as I watched her shrinking in the distance behind me I remembered the many great sailing days, peaceful nights on the hook out in the bay, and calm afternoons sitting in the cockpit with a book or just daydreaming over the rail.....

Here's a memory, one of many, of sailing her on the bay...it was a beautiful day with winds pushing 20 knots. I had spent the night at Nest Key and was on my way back to the anchorage. She was running free, a reef in the main and the skinny jib on the forestay, perfectly balanced and holding her course like she new the way home.

Fair winds little friend.