It was almost exactly a year ago that I reached an agreement with SBO to begin this forum during the final preparations for my great adventure. It seems appropriate, therefore, that all the interrelated decisions about the engine, my back, and my future have all come together at this time in a very generous offer from one of the up and coming maritime museums along the waterway. I’m not at liberty yet to provide any specifics, pending a formal announcement, but have been given permission to let my readers know how this will affect the events that they have been following.
This museum, which overlooks the ICW, is planning the displays in a new wing to be based on the timeline model, starting at the formation of the river and marsh system and ending with the community’s place in the modern world. They plan to give the late end of the timeline a significant focus in a rather interesting effort to make a museum display a “navigational fix” and guide to the future. Tourism, of which the boats that pass on the ICW form a significant part, is a major component of that.
The museum will purchase Strider to be used as a combination exhibit of passing life on the ICW and in a youth sailing program to help bring children and parents into an interactive and invested relationship with the museum and their common heritage. This blog will be reorganized into a book and exhibit providing both a “slice of life” view into the kinds of people who may be passing on the boats visitors can see through museum windows but also a tour of the entire coastline and waterway they are connected to as seen through the eyes of one person who has traveled it.
This is a very good deal for both the boat and myself. The engine has many hours left in it but not if I continue to use her as a trawler yacht. My back has many years in it but not if I keep trying to haul anchors and put up with the constant motion. I can’t sail Strider in the museum program due to lack of a USCG license (although I may work on that) but they have several volunteers who can.
There are plenty of other things I can offer a museum with my experience in historical research, traditional small craft, boatbuilding, graphics, etc. Being able to settle down and do these things with the boat I have put so much into and which has given me so much in return, alive and sailing within my view, is a wonderful outcome.
It does seem a lot like being put out to pasture for both of us. Exactly one year ago today, I was feeling young and adventurous and planning years of cruising. Perhaps this story, in the end, is that of a man coming to grips with his aging and mortality yet realizing that any dream can lead to another and that change does not necessarily mean that there are not still years of enjoyable and worthwhile activities ahead.
This museum, which overlooks the ICW, is planning the displays in a new wing to be based on the timeline model, starting at the formation of the river and marsh system and ending with the community’s place in the modern world. They plan to give the late end of the timeline a significant focus in a rather interesting effort to make a museum display a “navigational fix” and guide to the future. Tourism, of which the boats that pass on the ICW form a significant part, is a major component of that.
The museum will purchase Strider to be used as a combination exhibit of passing life on the ICW and in a youth sailing program to help bring children and parents into an interactive and invested relationship with the museum and their common heritage. This blog will be reorganized into a book and exhibit providing both a “slice of life” view into the kinds of people who may be passing on the boats visitors can see through museum windows but also a tour of the entire coastline and waterway they are connected to as seen through the eyes of one person who has traveled it.
This is a very good deal for both the boat and myself. The engine has many hours left in it but not if I continue to use her as a trawler yacht. My back has many years in it but not if I keep trying to haul anchors and put up with the constant motion. I can’t sail Strider in the museum program due to lack of a USCG license (although I may work on that) but they have several volunteers who can.
There are plenty of other things I can offer a museum with my experience in historical research, traditional small craft, boatbuilding, graphics, etc. Being able to settle down and do these things with the boat I have put so much into and which has given me so much in return, alive and sailing within my view, is a wonderful outcome.
It does seem a lot like being put out to pasture for both of us. Exactly one year ago today, I was feeling young and adventurous and planning years of cruising. Perhaps this story, in the end, is that of a man coming to grips with his aging and mortality yet realizing that any dream can lead to another and that change does not necessarily mean that there are not still years of enjoyable and worthwhile activities ahead.
