So often when we read blogs, the writers post a flurry of entries written over the course of a few weeks or months, and then suddenly - nothing.
What happens?
In our case, late in 2009 we lost our NYC apartment, winter was setting in, Honey Trout was on the hard on the East River and not even close to being ready to float again. We bought a cottage in St. Petersburg, FL with the idea that we would truck her down there, finish her and launch from down there.
But once we were down there we realized that, after all of that money and work, Honey Trout just wasn't worth rescuing. And neither was our relationship. Neither were strong enough to weather the storms that we faced.
I sold Honey Trout on eBay. Three times. It seems that people get caught up in the dream while watching the clock count down, bid, even pay the deposit, and then sober up in the morning and walk away. None of them even came to look at her. I spoke to one of the three guys on the phone. He said that he decided not to buy the boat. "No, that's not how eBay works. You already bought the boat. That's what that whole auction was last week." He was belligerent and argumentative until finally he broke down and admitted that he had lost his job the day after bidding on the boat, and that feeding his kids took priority over buying a boat. I can't argue with that.
I sold her for pennies on the dollar to a young guy who wanted to sail her around the Caribbean. Instead, he flipped her to another guy with the same idea. Come to think of it, I bought her from a guy who had a plan to fix her up to live on her with his family.
Honey Trout is a vessel for dreams more than a sailing vessel.
Now it is 2016. After stints in Florida and Washington DC, I am back in Brooklyn. My son Theo is a senior in high school here, about to graduate. Belinda is dividing her time between Tacoma Park, MD and India, teaching yoga and ayurveda. I'm still occasionally crewing for Andrew Kennedy, a friend who races a J-105 out of Annapolis Yacht Club.
I am a paper sailor again.
But that dream of sailing around the world still sits back there, simmering.
