I’ve always been a water person. Ever since I was a small child I gravitated towards the water. I was born on the west coast, near San Francisco. Some of my earliest memories are of playing in the surf. About the age of 5 our family moved to Minnesota to a small town with a small river. As I grew older and even though I was forbidden from doing so, I always played down by the river. Later fishing became my passion. I made my first boat in wood shop class when I was 16. It was a pirogue and it wasn’t pretty or sea worthy. I would have to bail constantly to keep her afloat. Jumping ahead, at the age of about 22 I was able to borrow a boat from one person and a motor from some one else. This arrangement kept me fishing on the water for about 2 years if I remember correctly. After that I bought a 17 foot open bow fishing boat, had a Johnson 55. I spent thousands of hours in that boat. I kept that boat for about 12 years, not bad for 3000 dollars.

By now I had a new wife, a new career and my children were getting older. The boat sat in the yard unused as my time for fishing diminished and I grew tired of the fish getting smaller and the fisherman population growing bigger. After the second season of disuse we sold the boat. And thus I remained boatless for nine years.

Two summers ago we were spending the 4^th of July with some friends of ours at their cabin. They had an older aluminum runabout. The boat bug bit hard that weekend. I recalled how much I enjoyed being on the water again. I wanted a boat. But what though? My present job keeps me on the road, one day I had driven by a sailboat dealer and what really grabbed my attention was the price on the side of the boat. $3000. Up until that moment I had never given sailing a second thought. Sailing was goofy. Sailing was for rich folks. Sailing was not for me.

In my youth I thought doing any thing on the water besides fishing was a waste of valuable time. I was the kind of fisherman who beat the water to a froth chasing fish from one end of the lake to the other. I owned all the gadgets, I had all knowledge and I had all the energy to fish from dawn to dusk never once stopping for lunch. Now things are little different (read a lot different). I prefer to go slow, I like to eat lunch and I can wile the day away staring at scenery. Back to sailboats.

Approximately 10 seconds after returning from our weekend retreat I was at White Bear Boat Works buying our first sailboat. Notice I said “our” and not “my” first sailboat because I want to make sure my wife knows how much I love her. Anyways, we were now the proud owners of a 1988 Catalina 14.2. Ahhhh, our first sailboat! I wonder how one these work. Anyone? Hello? Actually, Kim at White Bear Boat Works was great, she cleaned up the boat and gave me a lesson in rigging and a dry land sailing lesson. I was grateful for her help.

our first sailboat a Catalina Capri 14.2

Thus the adventure begins!