February 16, 2003
-
I found this lovely article about a live-aboard sexagenarian (in their 60′s-70′s) couple. Here I quote a few amusing tidbits from it.
SAILING INTO RETIREMENT
By William Parkinson
from http://www.thirdage.com/news/archive/980117-01.html
Retirement.
That condo, now that the children are gone — near a golf course,
perhaps — naturally with supermarkets and pharmacies nearby. Ah, the common
concept of the “golden years.”
Any sailor worth his or her salt would toss that vision out with the bilge water.
Tomorrow means ocean crossings, new ports to visit, a constant battle with the
elements and work, work, work. It means keeping that home afloat, shipshape,
ready for any contingency. It also means new friends, a passport to a wider world
and sunsets truly unimaginable.
Such a choice may not be “sensible,” according to society’s retirement mantras,
but for those who choose the sea, “eccentricity is, thank God, still legal until
fairly advanced old age,” say British sailors and authors Bill and Laurel Cooper.
Handbook for Ancient Mariners
They’ve dedicated their book, Sail into the Sunset: A Handbook for ‘Ancient Mariners’
(Adlard Coles Nautical of London, distributed in the U.S. by Sheridan House
Inc., $27.50) to the world’s “sailing octogenarians, in the hope that we will live
to join them,” and stress the sailor’s gospel that “old sailors seldom die; they
are too busy sailing.”
Happiness at Sea
Would-be ancient mariners concerned that a boat might be too confining for adequate
exercise can cast such notions to leeward. Crawling through bilges, stowing gear,
climbing the mast, steering through storm and fog and the very physical balancing of
one’s body against the forces of water will keep you fitter than the vast majority
given to daily walks or runs. Just visit any marina where they accept those sea
gypsies known as liveaboards and see how many out-of-shape sailors there are.
