The article below was written February 11, 2007 – a couple of months before we sold our powerboat and bought our current sailboat.

We Wanna Be on A Small Boat
On Big Oceans!
Article by Capt’n Harry
Song lyrics to “Small Boats on Big Oceans” (in blue) by Jack Mosley

I was not a son of a son of a sailor nor even a son of a sailor. I was a son of a powerboater. For half a century I have been a staunch powerboater. I have owned them all my life. I was raised on my Dad’s 27’ Chris Craft where I learned early navigational skills and how to fish. Then we also got an 18’ tri-hull with a 100+ HP Johnson that I even used to water ski to high school and hit every fishing hole on the St. John’s River around Jacksonville, Florida.

When I went to college in Tampa, my two friends, Slimbo and Race, and I took the powerboat down to the Keys and camped out for three months. We even got 15 college elective credits (thank you University of South Florida) as we fished and went diving every single day.

As I grew older my pal, Billy and I owned a go-fast Scarab with twin 225 Evinrudes. We use to run far offshore to the fishing holes in the Middle Grounds off of Tampa Bay and occasionally head down to Key West.
I believed the purpose of any boat was to get from point A to point B as fast as I could. We could run in 6’-8’ seas, get totally beat up, catch fish, smell like fish and love every single minute of it.

As I got a little older, Billy and I bought a 36’ Pacemaker Sportfish with twin inboards, a generator and AC. This was the first time I realized that comfort was cool and there was more to being in a boat than getting to Point B.

Today I am 53. Until recently Heidi Ho, my soulmate, and I have lived in St. Petersburg on YIPPIE KY A, a 45.5’ Chris Craft Sportfish. My father would have been so proud – a Chris Craft 40 years later.

YIPPIE KY A is a great boat with big Detroit 871 Turbo engines. We have put a lot of love and care into her and have done a lot of fishing together. We have traveled to the Keys and far offshore and she has always raised fish and brought us home safely. It is the first boat that I think I have really developed a personal relationship with. I remember when Hurricane Charley (the first hurricane to hit Florida in 2004) was heading towards Tampa Bay and all of the forecasts for 4 days prior had it directly hitting us at a Category 3. Heidi Ho and I literally had tears in our eyes as we left her tied up with 27 lines to fend for herself. Luckily for YIPPIE KY A and us Hurricane Charley became the first of 7 hurricanes over the past 2 years to miss the Tampa Bay area. As Jimmy Buffett once said in song about his whaler boat (“Brahma Fear” on Living & Dying in ¾ Time - 1974), I feel the same way about YIPPIE KY A:

“Yes, I own a whaler boat
It slides across the sea
Some folks say I'm part of it
And I know it's part of me”
YIPPIE KY A is definitely a part of me!

Although a powerboater true to heart, I have never had a problem with sailboats. I must admit I did not really understand them. I went sailing about a half dozen times and each time we ended up using the engine about 90% of the time.

“You can find them in harbors from Maine to St George
Working and playing and living on board
They dance to a rhythm that comes from the sea
And they’re not too afraid to live out they’re dreams”

Heidi and I were doing some work on Yippie Ky A at our marina in the early months of 2004. Feisty, a beautiful 53’ Trintella sailboat, had recently moved in a couple of slips down. One day we saw the owners, Mel and Jackie, walking down the dock towards us and they were holding hands. We thought that was pretty cool especially after we learned that they had been married over 37 years and were still so lovingly close. They stopped by to say hello. And the rest, as they say, is history. The conversion began!

We became instant “friends-for-life” – even if they were sailboaters, ha ha! They had been cruising the Caribbean for 5 years and were in for a refit with plans to sail out on December 1st - the official end of hurricane season. They told us of their adventures and how they got there. Mel was a dentist and Jackie a schoolteacher in New York. When their children graduated from college, he sold his practice. She quit teaching school. They sold the house, bought Feisty and headed south.

“Their friends and their families have called them insane
But it’s hard to ignore gypsy blood in your veins
They work at odd jobs in marinas and bars
And they’re home is the place where ever they are
So here’s to Small Boats on Big Oceans and life lived at sea
For the few brave souls who dare to believe
That there’s more to this life than an office downtown
Here’s to Small Boats on Big Oceans and dreams you can’t drown”

Their family and friends all thought they had lost their minds. But they had a dream to live out. They use to be powerboaters and then switched to sail. They realized that the only way to see the world the way they wanted to was to become sailors. They loved it and we could feel it from the stories they would tell.

“They’ve seen Sperm Whales and Dolphins who dance at their bow
Penguins and Orcas and icebergs down south
Stars without number and waves without end
And when they’re in port they’re just waiting to head out again
They’ve sailed through storms and they’ve seen the face
Of God staring down from an eighty foot wave
And on those occasions where its Neptune that wins
In a harbor some where there’s a glass being raised among friends”

They told us how they swam with the whale sharks in Utila, Honduras. They told us about preparing for Carnival in Trinidad and drinking 50 cent beer in a lagoon in Panama. There were stories about diving day after day on reef after reef from Bonaire to the Yucatan and eating freshly caught fish and conch and lobsters. They shared story after story of passage after passage. They simply told us about how wonderful cruisers were and the cruising life was. It did not take many more stories of times spent at sea and the excitement of visiting islands and cultures everywhere for me to be sold. We had to become sailors so we could go cruising.

Now for a guy who has been a powerboater all of his life and NEVER, I mean NEVER in a million years thought much about even going on a sailboat, much less totally changing from power to sail, well, it was like what people must think when they have near death experiences and change their evil ways (not that there is anything evil about power boats). It was like Nostradamus seeing the future. Hell had actually frozen over. It was like when Jake (Jim Belushi) turned to Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) in the Blues Brothers movie:

As he entered the Triple Rock Baptist Church, Jake figures out a way to raise the money needed so the St. Helen of the Blessed Shroud Orphanage could pay off their tax debt to the Cook County Tax Assessor. Jake began to shake. Elwood said “Are you all right?” The clouds parted outside and a bright light came through the church window and shined on Jake’s face and he said. “The Band! The Band!” The Reverend (James Brown) asks, “Do you see the light? Have you seen the light?” and Jake responds: “YES! YES! I have seen the light!” Then he proceeds to do cartwheels down the center aisle of the church.

Now I may not have done any cartwheels, but I had seen the light and it did not come from a flybridge with a tower above me and outriggers spread out and two loud engines humming with smoke coming out the stern backing down on a billfish. The light had masts and sails and halyards and cunninghams and barber haulers and blocks and backstays and battens and boom vangs and goosenecks and a whole lot of other nautical terms that I am still trying to learn. (Sidebar: I have been looking for the Berlitz Foreign Language Training Manual on Sailing Terms to learn this crazy-ass language you sailing folks speak. It makes port and starboard look like kindergarten terms. One more point. You decided to really mess with our heads with “SHEETS”. Whose idea was it to make sheets mean lines instead of sails?)

I had seen the light and it was SAIL not power. When I told Heidi about it, she thought I was crazy to even suggest such a thing. However, it did not take much convincing for her to see that light. She is a paralegal who would rather be on or in the water than on land. I could swear she had to be a mermaid in a previous life.
One day Mel and Jackie invited us to go on their first passage from Tampa Bay to Belize after Feisty’s refit. This would be a perfect way to see if Heidi and I could handle the pace of a sailboat. Remember that Point A to Point B thing? There is a whole story here about this passage that could be told at a later date, but the bottom line was this. We went for 22 days and it was absolutely awesome!

Due to final refit repairs and waiting on a weather window, we were finally able to set sail in March of 2005. Learning to sail was a blast. We even fished the whole time and caught tuna, mackerel, barracuda, wahoo and even the largest sailfish I have ever caught (and released). Cruising through the open seas without engines running while trolling fishing lines, having 3 hour watches throughout the nights while gazing at the stars, dealing with bizarre customs procedures and foreign Coast Guards, strategically navigating through poorly marked reefs and just sitting back reading more books in 3 weeks than we have in years as the wind blew through our hair and sun baked on our souls are some of the best experiences we have ever had.

“Some were once lawyers who now run from the law
And others are searching for a picture they saw
But they’ve one thing in common that binds them together
They’re all living for the same thing, good wind and fair weather”

So here we are now searching for the pictures that Mel and Jackie described in their times at sea and the few real life pictures we experienced with them. We now have YIPPIE KY A up for sale. We have been going to boat shows and checking out all of the web sites for possible “sail” (it is still hard for me to say that) boats to buy. We ask all of our sailor friends every question we can think of and we have discovered that every sailor has a different opinion about which boat and gear to get. “Definitely get a ketch.” “No, buy a sloop. “You should have a cutter rigged sloop.” “More sails for more wind.” “Less sails for maintenance and replacement costs.” “Big mast(s) needed.” “Small mast needed to travel intercostals.” “Go small go now.” “You need a bigger boat for this or that.” “You only need a good generator to produce electricity.” “You should have solar, wind and water generators.” “How about the new marine fuel cell?” “Now let’s talk electronics.” OH MY!!! Bottom line is now we try to only listen to those who have actually been cruising. They truly know the reality of what works and, as importantly, what doesn’t work.

As we travel down the docks of marinas, we now look at sailboats instead of powerboats. We go to the pages of boat ads in print and online to find the sailboats for sale – not the powerboats. We currently subscribe to any magazine associated with cruising – especially LATTS & ATTS. We joined the Seven Seas Cruising Association. At boat shows we look for items that will help us when sailing and cruising. We even go to boat shows that say “Strictly Sail”. We have always been Parrot Heads (heck, I am Founder and Captain of the largest Parrot Head Club in the word – Tampa Bay Parrot Head Club – www.finsup.com) and have always listened to Jimmy Buffett music. However, now we also listen to artists like Jack Mosley, Eric Stone, Sunny Jim, Rob Mehl, Jim Morris, Hugo Duarte, and more sing songs about sailing and cruising.

To put you in our shoes, if you are a sailor who has never even considered a powerboat, just imagine if your world was suddenly turned upside down and all you could think about was powerboats. Crazy, isn’t it?
So now the search is on. We know some things we want in a sailboat. We know we want a center cockpit that has room aft so we can troll and catch fish. We know we want good head room and an aft cabin with a centerline queen. We know a few things, but are still learning. We want to be on a small boat on big oceans and join all you cruising folks out there as soon as we can . . . and as soon as we learn your language!

“So here’s to Small Boats on Big Oceans and life lived at sea
For the few brave souls who dare to believe
That there’s more to this life than an office downtown
Here’s to Small Boats on Big Oceans and dreams you can’t drown
Yea, here’s to Small Boats on Big Oceans
And dreams you can't drown”

(To hear a sample of “Small Boats on Big Oceans” and learn more about the music of Jack Mosley, please visit www.jackmosley.com.  Mel, Jackie and Feisty are still out there sailing somewhere hoping to be joined soon by Heidi Ho and Capt’n Harry.)