News & Views for Southern Sailors - Southwinds Magazine

LETTERSwife as a teacher nurturing the children of, yep, you gotit…land-livers. That pretty much puts the kabosh on all thelate night parties…I may have been tempted, but mostly allthe other boaters I know are in bed at an hour past sundown.Don, I’m glad you were able to afford your several hundredthousand dollar piece of nirvana. And when you andyour wife go cruising, I truly hope you’ll be able to anchorsomewhere before like-minded and possibly snobbier folkspull rank and exclude you.“Jungle Jim” Joe CoreyS/V CalcuttaSomewhere in a neighborhood near youJoe,Don made good points and was correct, but the story is incomplete,and I hope I addressed the “rest of the story” in my response.The rest of the story includes what you say here, that most boaterswho cruise around and love the life are really hard-working peoplewho don’t party every night.Again, I will repeat my mantra that I use in response to allthese criticisms from many of the prejudiced group of “land-livers”(can we create this as a new word?): Those who judge themajority by the actions of the few must share some of the guilt asthey are not exactly acting nobly in their prejudice. They might beignorant, but the old saying, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse,”must hold some origin back to the daily interactions among people.Let’s say, “Ignorance of the majority who really represent agroup is no excuse.”EditorMORE ON THE MAJORITY OF THE MINORITYFirst, good job with the ICW name discussion—it has beenkicked around long enough. You gave it the respect itdeserves in your open format.Next, the biggest reason for sending this e-mail, is theincredible editorial answer to Don Nolen’s letter to the editorin the June issue. Wow. You were born to be a magazineeditor and far outshine every single one of them for openness,honesty, integrity, and flag-waving/church-going/Hippocratic-swearing/all-American patriotism that is notpolitically or monetarily motivated. (Excepting maybe BobBitchin, which puts you in great company!) It made me feela little bad for Don, because he wrote a “nice” letter andalthough you weren’t specifically hard on him, yourJeffersonian response sort of buried his niceness. Makes mewanna carry a SOUTHWINDS wherever I go!Third, a little story (actually two): We left the marina forgood on May 29 and have been floating around Tampa Baysince. As you know, living at anchor in various locations isvery interesting in so many ways. Today, at 1414 hours, theGulfport Police boat stops by Windigo at anchor just off theGulfport Casino dock in Boca Ciega Bay. The officer asksKarin (who is sitting in the cockpit reading) how long weintend on staying. She (very non-committally) says, “A couplemore days.” He then “informs” her that it would beokay, because there is a three-day limit to anchoring.Now—we lived at anchor just off the Gulfport Casinodock in Boca Ciega Bay for several months a couple yearsago. There are SEVERAL boats anchored here right nowthat have been here continuously since then. So, she raisesSee LETTERS continued on page 1210 October 2006 SOUTHWINDS www.southwindsmagazine.com