Breaking Up

Leaving a boat and skipper is awkwardly similar to breaking up with a girl. First, you make the decision to leave the boat. This isn’t easy because sometimes things are great. But its those few bad times that make you think if its worth it, except that time you got in a fight about nothing is that time you almost died. Imagine you just had sex with your girlfriend, then she decides to hold a knife to your throat. That’s sailing with a bad skipper.

Once you decide to leave, you have to get all your stuff off the boat. Do you take all your stuff, then tell them, or do you tell them and then pack up all your stuff while they awkwardly stand there? We packed up, moved out and then broke up the next day.

Then the actual breakup. You stand by the dock, waving your arms at the boat to get the attention of your skipper. He gets in the dinghy and rows against the current and wind. Alas, he is happy to see you, his crew, and talk of more adventure. But your attitude is different, and you can’t ease into it.

“Grant, we can’t get back on the boat with you.”

Next comes the its not you it’s the ocean bullshit. Even though it was them you don’t want to directly say that. Slowly dumb excuse after dumb excuse pour from your mouth, while they promise a change and plead for another chance. At the end of the day, its over.

Finally, there’s the post breakup awkward stage. You see each other out and about and when you talk you both act like everything is fine, and the trip is going as planned. But then there’s that one meeting where your ex-skipper yells and screams at you.

You realize you left your hoodie on the boat and you have to go back to retrieve it. As you show up, there is potential new crew on the boat, except your ex-skipper is going to pay this crew. Its like walking in on your ex with a hooker. He suddenly gets awkward and ushers the new crew away, as he yells at you that you are not allowed on the boat. He informs you he will get what you forgot and bring it out for you. After a couple of tries, he finally finds it and aggressively throws it at you. You turn and leave a tirade of angry remarks behind as you walk away.

The analogy was supposed to stop here, but finding a new skipper is surprisingly like dating. Gay.

We met Mike at a beach party. We all partied pretty late, and in the process Mile threw some emergency flares in the fire. Seems like a fun guy, has a boat and is leaving the island. We got his number and after waiting the required few days, called him to meet up with him on his boat.

His boat is clean and put together, and he has experience. The only problem is that he wants to take things slow. We want to set sail now, but he wants to wait until marriage, I mean ummm, a good weather window. But the fit seemed right, and sometimes you have to make sacrifice for a relationship. We are setting sail for New York City tomorrow morning. It should be a pleasurable ride, as Mike’s boat is six feet longer than Grant’s.