2005-10-14 20:39:07
Gary And Lois
Actually, there doesn’t appear to be much of a crew as there are only two of us, Gary (myself) is the Captain, Lois (also beloved wife) is the Admiral and God is our Pilot. I suppose there are others that contribute to the success or not so successful passages. They would be Poseidon, King Neptune, our Guardian Angels and the Devil himself who likes to toy with our senses and good judgment. But for the sake of this writing, to conserve space and your patience we’ll just talk about Lois and me a bit. Lois, AKA the Admiral only started actively in the boating game after we got married and bought our first ski boat together in 1990, although she always loved to swim and be at the beach. I actually have memories dating back decades of growing up at the beach eating wax coke bottles and Abba Zabba candy bars, being part of the Surfy Murphy era, intensely water skiing and owned a couple of boats earlier in life. After several years of power boating we looked for a change and ended up getting our first sailboat in 1994, a Catalina 30 “Dreamscape”, which was located on Lake Texoma, Texas. Here is where we began our sailing life and yearning for going to sea. After deciding indeed we wanted to have a life of cruising we researched and hunted for a boat that would serve us well in our plans. Ironically, we found her, TEXAN, right down the dock from us and purchased her in 1998. It was only a couple of years later that the opportunity came for us to force “retirement”, “drop out” or whatever you want to call it. We were now committed. (or should be committed according to my Mother) Over the years we have read, studied, taken classes, put in as many hours of sailing as possible, went to seminars from Annapolis, to Florida to San Francisco and places in between to acquire the skills, experience and confidence we required to be confident enough to cut the dock lines and head out to sea. We sure aren’t a Joshua Slocum story, nor do we have a Norwegian Viking family background, but we do know that we are blazing our own trails across the expanse of the sea. It’s a wonderful life! Read our Captain’s Log to learn more.
Gary and Lois