NavList:

Here’s the rub, I once had a shrink who liked sailing and knew I did too.  He used to use the allusion of a sailboat that is drifting to windward and off its intended course.  Compass bearings notwithstanding, being “off” one or two degrees expand into miles further down the “road.” 

Given an open ocean it is easier to drift than it might be say in a harbor or channel. 

So I have to say it is quite easier to become and to drift off course most of the time than it is to stay on one straight and narrow path as in point to point. 

Not quite possible really when you don’t have a tool like Celestial Navigation to help you get back to that otherwise “Straight” line. 

Therefore, numerical values aren’t always meaningless, a value has value which might be valuable to anyone using it.  

Now the question is begged, how is an airplane pilot or astronaut considered a “salt” for the term “salty” refers to a state of being that seems to have salt water in his/her veins. 

Joshua Slocum was a salty sailor, while John Glenn or Lindy wasn’t or isn’t.  Also, old salts have, tell or spin yarns and tales, few called them “stories” even though that is what they are in the pure sense. 

Here we have a sailor himself living inland to avoid the coming floods, they say proof has it the Chesapeake has risen a full 6” since 2014.  This should concern many, but few listened to or heeded the Great Noah either. 

Mystic Seaport and the River of the same name is where Frank practices his craft.  Nice because the real estate there is through the roof, price wise.  And summers are a time of floating visitors from other places. 

The mythical Cottage in the Ghost and Mrs. Muir was a place a sea faring captain of the 19^th Century might want to spend the remainder of his days.  Most likely dear in price in his day too, but not the millions and millions similar “cottages” on the Cape and up Connecticut and RI way command today.  Everyone wants to live on or near the water.  All good things like that will one-day pass from knowledge into history. 

So, while I began talking about how easy it is to stray off course in a lot of things that life throws at me, I ended on the high price of real estate in otherwise nice and desirable places for sea faring folks to live. 

I drifted off course, and then corrected that deviation in the sentence above. 

This just goes to prove to me that drifting off course is so easy that we are off course most of the time in our daily lives. 

Just a thought. 

Rommel John Miller