The Who, What, Where, Why & When Of Cruising!
Sometimes You Need to Keep a Starboard Attitude! For over 30 years Bob Bitchin has been the involved in the sailing community. His previous magazines, Latitudes & Attitudes and Living Aboard, shared the joys of the cruising lifestyle, and his nationally televised weekly TV show shares the true adventure of what it is like to be a sailor in the 21st Century. Starboard Attitude is a collection of articles that show what it is truly like once a person has decided to cut the docklines and sail off into the sunset. Bob has sailed over 100,000 miles, all over the world, and still manages to get out and show sailors what it’s like with his “Share The Sail” adventures in such idyllic areas as Tahiti, Croatia, Tonga, Greece, the BVIs, and Thailand.
Here’s A Sample Partial Chapter:
We Gotta Be Nuts
There is something that happens to me as soon as I see a small gap of water between my boat and the dock as I am leaving for a sail; a feeling of freedom that is the same no matter where the day’s destination is.
This first became evident to me when I was taking the boat from the slip to King Harbor Marine Center to pick up my new booms. As soon as the boat was clearing the slip I felt like I was leaving on an adventure.
Yeah, I know. Stupid, right? I was just going around the marina, but still I felt my heart start to beat a little faster, and I noticed this stupid grin on my face.
As I motored through the marina I tried to analyze just what the hell it was that made me smile like that. It’s not like I was taking off to cross an ocean, or on an epic voyage. I wasn’t even going out to anchor for the night in front of
the harbor, as I often do. I was working. This was just moving the boat from the slip to the marine yard and back. No adventure. No epic life altering distances. Just a five minute motor.
Then it hit me. Here I am looking back at more than 75 years of life, and I still turn into a little kid the minute I push off from land on a vessel. I remember as far back as when I was in grade school. During summer vacation my brother and I’d go behind the Sepulveda Dam (where we weren’t allowed to go) and build a raft every year. As we’d launch the raft in the five foot- wide Los Angeles River I would get this feeling inside like I’d just joined Huckleberry Finn on a voyage down the mighty Mississippi.
We’d push off with a couple of sticks, and we’d wind our way through the bushes on our great adventure.
