Peter loves to sail.
He grew up in Miami spending as much time as possible on the water and even sailed a Priam on the little lake behind this house. (He claims to have water-skied all the way back from Elliot Key as a teenager, but — assuming the story is true — I am pretty sure that must have been a power boat rather than a sail boat). In the 1990’s he and I spent many days “bombing around the Bay” (as he called it) on his Pacific Seacraft Flicka. We kept “Ilsa” at Dinner Key Marina until she was lost to a hurricane around 2004 (Katrina? Wilma?)
In the spring of 2005, we spent a memorable week aboard a bareboat charter in the British Virgin Islands with Sean and Julia and Jackie and Joe. Peter took pride in the fact that he did not bathe or shower during the entire week. Looking back, that’s probably why the six of us never vacationed together again.
Eli often wears a hand-me-down T-shirt from the Soggy Dollar Bar, so named because you have to anchor out, swim in, and buy your drinks with wet money.
Peter sent me off on a solo vacation to the BVI in 1992 with an outfit called Womanship, where women teach other women to sail. It’s motto is “Nobody Yells.” Our wonderful German friend Ute also tried to teach me to sail. She didn’t yell either.
One of Peter’s favorite adventures was helping to bring Ute’s beloved sailboat “Gone with the Wind” back to Miami from the Bahamas just before Ute passed away in 2009. Sean, Peter, Frank and Joe found themselves in a serious storm crossing the Gulf Stream, one that has been fodder for tall tales ever since.
Sean bought her from Ute’s daughters and re-christened her “Fiji”. People say it is bad luck to change a boat’s name, but that boat has continued to bring joy to many people, including Peter. It helps that some of Ute’s ashes remain aboard.
We sailed out of Biscayne Bay Yacht Club many times aboard Monk and Kitty’s “Kit and Kaboodle.” If we had been able to bottle the laughter and good times we had aboard that boat, we’d have enough to last a lifetime. Monk and Kitty are Macy and Eli’s godparents.
Last summer we spent a memorable evening aboard the Surprise, a one-hundred year-old schooner that sails out of Camden, Maine. The owner/captain allowed Peter to take the helm and I am not sure I have ever seen him smile so big. Peter was fascinated by the boat’s history and restoration and our beautiful sail around Penobscot Bay with John and Diane.
Once it became impossible for Peter to board a sailboat, but Gordon and Bridget insisted on getting Peter on the water as much as possible on a yacht where Peter was strapped into the fighting chair (normally used for deep sea fishing). We toured the mansions of Miami Beach many times, to the delight of Michelle and Christen and Charlie and Michelle and Darren, friends who visited from out of town and got to accompany Peter on some memorable sunset cruises.
I don’t quite understand his logic, but Peter got Macy to agree that she would not get any more tattoos for five years if the two of them got one together. I snapped this photo of his tattoo this morning while his capable and loving British nurse Michelle was giving him a sponge bath. It will be bittersweet to look at Macy’s sailboat long after his is gone.
Origin of: “Fair Winds and Following Seas.”
The origin of the quote “Fair Winds and Following Seas” is unknown. It is often said to have been lifted from a poem, phrase, or literary work, but to the best of this researcher’s knowledge, it wasn’t. Over the last century at least, the two quotes “Fair Winds” and “Following Seas” have evolved, by usage, into a single phrase which is often used as a nautical blessing.
“Fair Winds”: The Dictionary of American Regional English defines “Fair Wind” as “safe journey; good fortune.” An early example of the phrase’s use is in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, published in 1851, where it says near the end “Let me square the yards, while we may, old man, and make a fair wind of it homeward.” In other words, let me square the yards (add on all sail) and make a safe journey home.
“Following Seas”: Defined by Bowditch’s American Practical Navigator as “A sea in which the waves move in the general direction of the heading.” It further defines “Tide” as “the periodic rise and fall of the water resulting from gravitational interactions between the sun, moon, and earth. . . . the accompanying horizontal movement of the water is part of the same phenomenon.” In simple terms: the movement of the water, the waves, and the surface, correspond with the movement of the tide.
“Fair Winds and Following Seas” is really two quotes originating from different sources. The two quotes are a nautical phrase of good luck–a blessing as it were–as the person, group, or thing it is said to departs on a voyage in life. It is often used at a “beginning” ceremony such as a commissioning ceremony of a ship or people, as well as in retirement, change of command, or farewell ceremonies.