A wandering course....

Many have asked me over the years, "why don't you just settle down?" I could I guess take a job, that would support a mortgage payment and have me home at 5PM every night to watch reruns and walk my dogs. Maybe that would even land me a lovely wife and in turn a couple of adorable kids.  I could have the manicured front lawn, the volvo in the drive and the flat screen on the wall. I guess I could do all those things, but then again where would that thinking have gotten me 10 years ago?

The Kids of CCB in 2010

Back then I wanted to live aboard a boat and teach sailing to low income kids. That morphed into a mission way bigger than me that built two public access marine facilities, taught thousands of kids and adults about the water and sailing, and I think altered the course of events in some small way. Despite having it stolen in a most egregious and corrupt way (par for the course in Connecticut), there is a spot on the planet where some very lofty ideas and some wonderful times will always live. And some very lucky kids got to enjoy boating for a short period and some very luck adults will always carry the memory.

But it was that lofty thinking and that wandering spirit that lead me to build CCB, and though she now resides with Davey Jones at the bottom of Long Island Sound, it is the spirit born into CCB that still makes me wish to wander on.

So now what? where to next?? Right now I am rebuilding a life and recovering from the losses of my last life. Every time I pull back towards my old life, my hand is slapped by the fates and karma pushes me forward. Truth be told I would have gone down with the ship, had it not been taken from me before I could scuttle it, but maybe that was the Good Lord telling me to shove off and find a new course.

But then we're back to, "Where is his direction?"

Do you ever stand by the Ocean and say to yourself,
"There is a whole world out there?"

The short answer- I have. My direction takes me where the winds blow and the tide sends me. It has lead me to the rocks of Maine, the dunes of the Cape, the Palm trees of the ICW, and soon enough, the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean.  Is that a strait and true course- no way in hell. But the destination- the place I am going is where the sun is warm, the seas are flat, the winds are gentle, and the nights are bright and starry.  That's my destination where ever I sail.

It could be here in New England-  late spring on Long Island Sound is like a dreamscape on the evening high tide in June. It could be on the coast of Maine where the loons call rises as a spirit across the sunset. Or it could be off Saba Rock in the BVI's where the sharks gather in the evening to clean up the restaurant scraps set adrift by drunken tourists in Paradise.

Sharing Life By the Sea with a new set of students in Rhode Island.
I love teaching. I love learning. I love sharing. 

These are the things I am heading towards wherever they may be, not just so I can see them, but so that I might share them and get you the reader to understand the beauty and joy that life by the sea may offer.

My goal is to share what I see with you and urge you to see it for yourself. But if you never get there, if you never take the time to wander the path less traveled to a place that is seldom seen, then my job is at least to brighten someone's drab day with day dreams about places, sights and flavors that live so close to our homes but are so far from hearts and minds. And maybe then, just like the kids of CCB who saw for the first time the world that existed so close to their homes but were never given the chance to see- maybe you too will see the world that sits so close to your front door and can do so many wonderful things for your heart, if only you take the time to experience it. That is life by the sea.