Wayward Landlubber

   A white Male with economic or political stature is expected to be assertive, it is a desirable trait. A black man or woman of any color with economic or political stature is accused of being a tyrant in the first instance, or pushy in the second, if they assert their stature. Assertiveness is considered an undesirable characteristic, or so asserts the white males. The Presidency of the United States is supposed to be held by a statesman or diplomat who, while asserting his/her stature, must be seen as thoughtful or reasoned. The election of 2008 gave us the first non-white Male president. He was thoughtful and reasoned, a gifted diplomat whose assertions were a model of statesmanship. The aggrieved white males whose candidacies were handily rejected could not tolerate this interloper on their rightful domain. He was a (gasp) black man who had moved his attractive and morally upright family into their Whitehouse. His desirable traits were a tyranny and he was a tyrant, they ...

   Along about the mid-1850s, during the presidency of James K Polk, there existed a political rump party. Rump, not Trump. This party, whose unremembered name was the American party, is universally known as "know-nothing" because they claimed not to know who led the party. It has not been determined if this was a metaphor or a sad display of truth. The two dominant parties then were the Whigs, the party of Northern business interests, and the Democrats, then the party of slavery. The anti-slavery whigs and the Abolitionists would become the Republican party a decade later. The Know-nothings believed in American nativism, not to be confused with native- American. They were filled with the belief that all the land between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans was manifest by God to be included in the United States. The residents of that area of land were not consulted. Further, they wanted Mexicans to leave their land so that it, too could became a part of the United States. Canada...

   The seas rolled up as high as the spreaders on the mast, and I had to ease the bow over the lip of each approaching wave so as not to slam down into the trough some twenty feet below. It was like skiing big moguls, and there could be no mistakes. There was no star sight that night, or for the next two days. I was given a life harness made of web-strap with a stout caribiner, with which I would strap myself to a hook recessed into the floor of the cockpit. "Wherever you move topside, make sure you are secured", quoth Leon, and I did not disagree.    A large wave was picked up by the wind and slapped against Blanquita's stern, causing her to shudder and dumping hundreds of gallons of water, filling the well and drenching me. Had I not been strapped in I would have been washed overboard. The water drained out of the scuppers slowly, and the bilge-pumps came on automatically to clear the cabin bilge of any water that had gone through the companionway.    T...

We sailed NNE through the trade winds to pick up the southerly flow, which would carry us under the Golden Gate Bridge a few weeks hence. The sun rose each morning bright and clear; the days were warm and the sun set with a rosy glow each evening. The stars at night were numerous and large. Orion began his nightly journey by rising from his back in the East each night, hunting and drinking across the starry firmament and falling on his face in the west at dawn. The winds were slightly abaft the beam and sufficient to move us along on a beam reach at about 6 to 7 knots.    The daily routines were set and, except for the marine head which had again stopped working, there were few adjustments to be made. We took a four-hour watch at the helm, with the next four hours as lookout and fetcher of coffee for the helmsman. Our off time was spent mending clothes with Dacron sail thread (Saltwater dissolved the cotton thread), reading and sleeping. Our quarterberths, which were stacked ...

RED SKY AT NIGHT, SAILORS DELIGHT, RED SKY IN THE MORNING, SAILORS TAKE WARNING.    The Lister diesel throbbed to life and the crew of Blanquita made their final preparations to leave the terrestrial world behind and take up residence in the aqueous world for the next three to six weeks. The differences would be stark; a different rhythm, different sounds, and little to smell outside those the crew brought with them. Some of them knew that it would be a world of stifling closeness, but all were eager to join it.    The springline to the Spirit, which we had been rafted off to overnight, was shipped and coiled. Then the order "bowlines", followed by "sternlines". These were coiled and stowed in the lazaretto along with the fenders that had kept the two sailboats from scraping hulls. Blanquita pulled away from Spirit and the two crews shared noisy fairwells. Spirit, a classic 36 foot gaff-rigged wooden ketch, would meet a far different fate in the weeks to come. Bla...

I few years ago I stumbled on a book by Frederich Von Hyack called, "THE ROAD TO SERFDOM". Normally you would not consider this serendipitous, but since conservatives have lionized him and his cousin, this book led to the idea to write the following:    Some years ago, Dylan Rattigan who had a program on MSNBC, had a guest who billed himself as a stand-up economist. He was a young man with a PhD in economics who tried to put a humorous spin on what academics call, The Dismal Science. I have not seen him on TV since but he can be found on YouTube.    I'm an optimist. I believe that since people find a "spit take"funny, or slipping on a banana peel, there must be humor in economics somewhere. One definition of humor is something that comforts the oppressed and oppressed the comfortable. That, then is the logical place to start: nothing oppresses people more than the lack of money and power, which are inextricably linked. Moreover, no one is more unlikable to t...

Great news! The publisher is accepting my memoir, THE MARITIME ADVENTURES OF A WAYWARD LANDLUBBER. I meet with him Friday June 6 at 10am.

Living in a marina is an exercise in prioritizing your needs. Most of us, those in humble craft, have access to a small refrigerator of a size common in college dorms. A student would not need much cold storage, since meals are provided by the cafeteria. A denizen of a marina must buy groceries that can keep without refrigeration. The other problem is storage of dry goods. A landsman can commonly be heard using this phrase: "a place for everything, and everything in its place". A harbor resident does not have that luxury if their vessel is not a yacht. There are only so many places one can store things and they, like refrigeration are small enough to exist in the otherwise wasted space in the tiny floating home. Stowage by definition means to store cargo in a manner that provides optimal safety for the ship and its passengers. Like those passengers, stowage must be regarded as movable, for ballast, and temporary. Every day is a dilemma.