[Travis McGee]

I'm going to tack this onto the end of the Bracken Anthology as a parting shot. Feel free to copy it anywhere that it might find a receptive audience. (The same goes for all of the essays and short stories on the anthology; they are also found linked on my website.)

[shoff]

Our own Matt Bracken, living the dream financed by writing about the nightmare America has become. Bravo!

[BrandtMichaels]

Pingity ping ping ping!!!

[CJinVA]

Try it, you'll like it

[AllAmericanGirl44]

bkmk

[DuncanWaring]

If you could choose your schedule, how hard would it be to sail your boat around the southern tip of either Africa or South America?

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

Travis, thank you for posting this. You are a man after my own heart, though you have lived much more of my dream than I have.

I learned to sail on a 26 foot Pearson Commander on Lake Erie in the early 70’s. I crewed in races on Lake Erie at every opportunity. I learned and taught navigation. In 1976 I had an opportunity to bare boat on a 39 foot center cockpit Pearson 390 in the Bahamas. I sailed in the Irish Sea. I am attuned, but short of my dream. Joshua Slocum and Sir Francis Chichester are my heros.

I have sailed on a friends Islander 34 with my feet on the transom opposite the cockpit, in the water.

We often would go out on Lake Erie when all the other boats were coming in because of the weather. If you can’t sail in foul weather, forget about sailing!

But you have nailed it...sailing is a life! In my early 40’s I visited a boat builder on the Chesapeake eastern shore in the 70’s and almost traded my house for a 40 ft ketch. Been sorry several times since.

[Repeal The 17th]

Do you have an opinion one way or the other about catamarans?

[rabidralph]

Thanks for posting. I found this on FB and sent it to a sailing friend.

[DuncanWaring]

What do owners of boats on the Atlantic coast or Gulf coast do when a hurricane is forecast to hit the area?

Pull the boat out of the water? Sail away from the hurricane? Something else?