The Illustrious Dad, Dr. Dick

I asked my dad to occasionally guest blog, and add his perspective of my journey to the blog. I think you'll love him. I certainly do.

(I hope you notice the symmetry of this introduction to that of an earlier introduction. Happy Thanksgiving!)


BACK TO THE BEGINNINGS

How does one get to be a sailing nut? Well, Scott comes by it honestly. It started with his dad taking sailing lessons on a mountain lake near State College, PA when Scott was just a tyke. His dad was hooked on sailing after a sail in Boston harbor with an Army buddy in a Snipe, the weekend of his buddy’s wedding.



You can see Scott here with his first sailboat (a wooden Sailfish) with his parents. Unfortunately he did not get a lot of sailing time in this in Florida, where we had moved. It leaked and became sluggish in the water. He later got a fiberglass Sailfish and sailed it on the Potomac, but Dad burned that one up (another story, best forgot).

Contributing to necessary skills for a sailor, his dad made sure he knew how to swim after a scary incident. At about eighteen months old he was walking along the edge of a Florida water-filled sinkhole behind his parents. This was a spot where scuba divers like to do underwater cave exploring. When his parents looked behind they did not see Scott. Running back about fifty feet, we found him under about a foot of water, on his back looking up, holding his breath with puffed cheeks. That started a regimen of getting him to jump into the pool and paddling out increasing distances to me. This paid off later as a teenager in the Washington suburbs, when he was on neighborhood and high school swim teams and piled up an impressive stack of trophies. This will be a fall back capability if his boat sinks!



After his parents took sailing lessons at the Annapolis Sailing School, they bought a Rainbow, a 24 foot boat that the midshipmen at the Naval Academy learned on. During his formative years we spent many a day on the Chesapeake near the Rhode River sailing, swimming, and crabbing. Because it had a 4 foot keel, we also spent lots of time getting off being grounded. With a keel boat, they say that if you haven’t grounded in the Chesapeake, you haven’t sailed the Chesapeake. Maybe that is why he enjoys his catamaran so much and brags about not being grounded.



Later when he was on his own, he bought a sailboat with some friends in the Baltimore area. On a few sailing trips that he invited us on near Baltimore, we brought one of our dogs along. On the first sail, just a few hundred yards from the dock, Sho-me the dog, decided he would like to investigate something off the beam, but didn’t realize the footing wasn’t so great. So dad leaped in to save him.(ed. note: Another great story, to be told on the blog, later...) Here he is with Scott, later in the sail when we were anchored off an island, ready to climb back on board after exploring the island. Sho-Me still looks a little uncertain about it all. I think he enjoys visiting the Wharf Rat Brew Pub near Scott’s house a lot more than sailing.

Scott tells me he is retired now. I’m still working, nearing 70. My friends tell me something is wrong with this picture, but I’m thinking it’s me, not Scott. I really envy him his trip. Good sailing!!!