Life is full of surprises. And stuff.

So, I haven't posted for a little while, because I went to ENGLAND, and it was FABULOUS, but I'll write more about this later.

This morning, we went over to see the boat and maybe go sailing, since we hadn't seen the boat in about a month. It was indeed too windy to go for a sail, so we did some maintenance, and puttering around.

HOWEVER!

As I got out of my car, and fiddled with my equipment (oxygen, backpack, bottle of water, other important items), and Cap'n Bligh got all his equipment together, I stood up, peered down our familiar dock with its familiar boats, and said in an inordinately loud voice, "WHAT THE F*** IS THAT?!?!?!!?!???"


Remember, if you will, that our boat is 34 feet long, with a mast 51 feet above the water. The biggest boat on our dock is maybe 45 feet, with a mast not much taller than ours. What I saw was a bowsprit, (one of those long spear things that stick out the bow of a sailboat) that at its tip was as tall as some of the masts. And masts, taller than anything else by far, with a square-rigged sail at the top of one of them. It was HUGE. It was F***ING HUGE. And it was at the end of our dock.

Well, we marched ourselves down our dock, passing our boat hardly noticing if it was still floating or not, and we marched with our silly mouths agape to see a square-rigged, two-masted, one hundred seventy five foot long ship parked at the end of our dock. On the back it says "Clipper City."


One of our neighbors was on her boat, and she said, "You guys haven't been around for a while, have you?" And I said "What the HELL is this thing??"

She explained that it had come from Baltimore, repossessed by the bank from a guy. It obviously needs a LOT of work. A LOT of work. Clipper City was taken by the bank and they think they're going to get a million dollars for it.

Banks are so silly.

Boats are not investments.

Boats are for work or for fun. They only depreciate.

This one used to give rides in Baltimore Harbor, and the Coasties shut 'em down because the boat is not safe for commercial use. Lots of rust, bad fiberglass over wood of questionable quality, a huge maintenance nightmare, and it needs a crew of ten or so to ever leave the dock.

And the bank is paying our marina about $3,000.00 a month to park it at the end of our dock.

They're not using the pool, or the showers, or the gym, or having coffee and danish in the breakfast lounge.

Maybe next year our rates won't go up.

Welcome, HUGE Friend.