Call For Your Complimentary Offshore Rigging Evaluation! 410.280.2752 man named Benjamin. He added his own tales of sailing on Capricious with Richard, bashing into coral reefs in the Bahamas, the gallant captain soldiering on, consequences be damned. “He was always ‘almost ready,’ ” Tiffany said, looking down at her feet, “always ‘about to go’ or ‘this close’ to going, but the islands are as far as he ever went. He was a dreamer.” I stood there listening, knee-deep in my own dream, consoling a woman I hardly knew while clamping one of her justdeceased father’s books under my arm. Lots of sailors are dreamers. Books of fantasy and adventure color our days and influence our perspectives. “Didn’t I tell you to be careful? Didn’t I tell you they were only windmills?” Sancho Panza scolds Don Quixote in the book. “Affairs of war… are subject to continual change," replies Don Quixote.
“Frestón… has turned these giants into windmills to deprive me of the glory of victory." No matter the circumstance, no matter how clearly things looked to be one such way from the outside, our hero sees his reality through steady, unwavering eyes. I often wonder if the Don Quixotes of the world are crazy at all. Being eternally true to one’s calling and to oneself is hardly a crime, whether your trusty steed is a horse or a boat. Capricious has a new owner now and a new home on Florida’s west coast. Her decks sparkle in the Florida sun, and her teak interior glows honey gold. I wish I had met Richard. I wish I could tell him that both his book and his boat are in good hands, and that knight errantry lives on in the dreams of sailors everywhere. #
About the Author: John Herlig is a published poet, a public speaker, and host of the upcoming podcast This Is Real Happiness. Reach him at avedelmar.com.
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