Lessons Learned

Here are six lessons learned while sailing this summer.

1. WEATHER – So many people, especially out West and in the Midwest, have suffered incalculable psychic and monetary damage from floods, drought, wildfires, snow and bitter, bitter cold in recent years. We have it easy here in Williamsburg and throughout Tidewater Virginia.

2. SPORTS –namely the NFL– is the last refuge of conversation among certain men who don’t have much else to think about. That’s fine, and I get it. But their greatest loyalty is not to their hometown team but to their Fantasy League team, whatever that is. It boggles my mind.

3. AILMENTS – Do not ask a man about his ailments because he’s got a captive audience on a boat. If he’s in his 40s, he’ll tell you in great detail, as if what he has is unique and therefore worthy of great description. Their wives cringe as they get wound up. Older fellows know better, and they remain stoically silent and thinking all the while: Just you wait.

4. POLITICS – Some people would rather talk about politics than the issues that comprise politics, because it’s a lot easier and enables them to know little or nothing of what they’re talking about. (By the way… Among nearly 800 people I took sailing this summer, only one admitted to being for Donald Trump and none for Ben Carson. So where do these high poling numbers come from?)

5. MILITARY – I took out numerous active-duty servicemen and women this year, and I can tell you this: They are better trained, better motivated and better fed than any of my counterparts in my day when we were skinny lieutenants. They are strong, loyal and determined. We are in good hands as a result.

6. SURPRISE – People who have never sailed are genuinely surprised to find how much fun it is. They revel in the idea that an 8800-lb. boat can skim along the water at a rapid pace, thanks to nothing more than the wind and their ingenuity to harness it. Plus they can have a fine conversation without having to holler over the roar of an engine.

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