| Why do many individuals adore yachts? Why do | | | | out to feel the wind on their faces, the sun on their |
| they go to great lengths to own a cruiser? US | | | | backs. Their boats allow them to escape from |
| singer/songwriter Kenny Chesney has a song named | | | | reality for a little while. |
| Boats on his new album, Lucky Old Sun. In the song | | | | Others friends, have their seaworthy vessels to |
| he sings: | | | | make a living from the sea, as do the many |
| “Boats…. vessels of freedom, harbors of | | | | shrimpers and charter boat Captains that ply the |
| healing...boats, twenty years of a landlocked job was | | | | waters of our Southeast shore. |
| all that Tom could take sitting at his desk all alone | | | | But as a full-time waterman, I can say it's more than |
| and depressed (he) says this just can’t be my | | | | what it seems. Yes, it's an state of mind. Leaving the |
| fate, went home that night and told his wife (that) | | | | regular world behind, knowing you have everything |
| you can tell all of your friends it's been real but it ain't | | | | you need to sustain yourself and your crew for life |
| been fun (so we are) gonna get us one of | | | | and weeks on end. |
| them…boats… vessels of freedom, harbors of | | | | If I want to stay in port, I do; if I want to depart, I |
| healing...boats” | | | | can do that too. Oh vessels can be bother and |
| I've listened to that song a dozens of times and it | | | | they take oodles of money to maintain but us |
| gets better each time. He found the words I've | | | | boaters believe it’s a labor of love. You just |
| always known were there but never could quite find | | | | can't put a price on the feel you get when you are |
| them. Good for him! | | | | at the helm, everything works, the air is crisp and the |
| As a waterman myself it sometimes becomes hard | | | | sea is peaceful. |
| to rationalize to non-boaters what the fuss is all | | | | It takes only one good sunset to make it all |
| about. Perhaps it's a sickness; at least it’s got | | | | worthwhile. |
| to be a bug. | | | | Mark Twain, an American author eloquently said |
| Some of us use our vessels as our homes, treating | | | | “Twenty years from now you will be more |
| her like a member of the family. I do have a habit | | | | disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by |
| of talking to my personal trawler; she speaks back to | | | | the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail |
| me but in ways only I can hear. She has become a | | | | away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in |
| refuge of sorts. | | | | your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” |
| I have friends that use their yachts for an escape | | | | So ask yourself, do you yearn for that. |
| from life's twists, relying on their vessels to sail them | | | | Spanish philosopher Jose' Ortegay Gasset once said, |
| into a sea of solitude. | | | | "Tell me the landscape in which you live, and I'll tell |
| They take their sailboats, trawlers or motor yachts | | | | you who you are. |