Part of why my family moved from Michigan to Mississippi had to do with sailing. As a kid growing up my earliest memories go back to being on a sailboat. My dad was an avid sailor and we raced across Lake Erie when I was like 6 months old. As the North is cold. Sailing ended every year in October and didn’t start again until spring when everything thawed out. In Mississippi you can sail 365 days a year. Pack your bags, we’re heading south.

In 1983 my dad decided that we would race less and cruise more. He began looking at a less aggressive boat. The closest place to get what he was looking for was in Mobile, AL. 

It may have only been 3 trips to Mobile but it felt like to me that we were in Mobile every weekend that summer.  Eventually the boat came in and we sailed it back to Mississippi. 

I love how vivid memory can be. Since that summer, some 36 years ago, I think of that boat and those trips every time I pass through Mobile. I remember us dropping a rather expensive piece of a power cord into the water and somehow retrieving it from the dirty brown water. I remember listening to the radio in the v-berth (the bed in the front tip of the sailboat). Puttin on the Ritz by Taco was rocking and the Mellow Yellow before they dropped the “w’s” was flowing. I remember eating at the Mobile Yacht Club and getting a bacon cheeseburger every time. This was big because until then I didn’t eat cheese unless it was on pizza. 

Today I’m in Mobile, putting on the Battleship 12k and yesterday I thought about taking a trip down to the MBYC to see what other memories spring forth. These are the detours in life we talk about and think about but usually don’t act on. 

I’ve been a part of this run for 5 years and never stepped on the Battleship either because, you know, I need to hurry and get home or hurry and do this or that or nothing. 

If nothing let this be a reminder to go take that extra 30 mins you’re going to shit away 4 times over today and smell the roses or something. What the hell else better do you have to do

I think I’ll drive down and see what’s going down at the yacht club, and play Putting in the Ritz. 

#hugsandhi5