Bob Bitchin and Randy Deering couldn't be more different. Bob is the former editor of Biker and Tattoo magazines, both of which he sold to buy a boat and go sailing. His own boat was the first one he'd ever stepped foot on. Randy is a minister by trade and has captained charters, delivered yachts, taught sailing, you name it. One can tell just by looking at these two men that their approaches to sailing and life have little in common. Randy is a practical, button-down kind of guy; Bob is a one dangly earring pirate.
It was good to have seen these salty sailors, both with a hundred thousand miles or more under their rudders, who come at this so differently. For dirt dwellers dying to get offshore like us, it's inspiring to know that there's more than one way to be successful at sea. Their respective seminars said as much just by dint of what they focused on. Randy presented a planning overview; Bob said the adventure begins when something goes wrong. Randy's PowerPoint was black and white, bullet points, the only graphic embellishment a line drawing of a sailboat floating at a random spot on the page. Bob's was full-color, text-over-photos in the font styles one sees on car and motorcycle decals circa 1960s and 1970s. These two men may sail on the same waters but they undoubtedly live on different planets--except for one bit of advice and that was this: if you're serious about sailing, set a departure date and work your way backward to today. Having a solid date in mind by which one expects to shove off is the difference between those who go and those who dream of going. I don't know if Randy and Bob know each other or have ever met, but on this they are in complete agreement.
There is a bit of popular culture wisdom which says that if you see the same headline on the covers of two different tabloids, it must be true. In that same vein, if you get the same piece of advice from diametrically opposed sources, it must be good. Well, good enough for us, anyway.
And so we have: February 1, 2012. It's a Wednesday. I have set outlook to remind me that it's an all day event for which I will be "out of the office" and travel will be required. This is good.
Now we can set up schedules: house renovation completion, ASA certification getting, boat broker researching, surveyor finding, equipment shopping, boat and medical insurance buying, house showing, estate-settling, apartment renting, sail planning and provisioning schedules.
So there it is; calendar's ticking. Here we go.
