Trading Places

So then it was the last weekend in September, and even though it was now autumn for sure the weather that weekend was as fine and fair as one could hope for from any summer day, and it was the sunset cruise, and I had on Mon Tiki seven bachelorettes, a young couple from abroad, an older couple from Long Island, and four ladies who had sailed with me before (one who had even sailed with me on INTEMPERANCE.)

And so there we are, in the picture you see above and it was a very fine evening indeed. They were all feeling quite chuffed to have snuck in one more summer’s day, and I was doubly chuff, for the sneaking, but also for being Sold Out when “the season” was now a few weeks in the rear view mirror.

People often ask me about myself and what it’s like to do my job and I tell them that I like it very very much, and this night was no different, and then I had this thought.

As some of you know, I used to make my way with cameras and words and sometimes even music. I’d mix pictures and sounds together and make movies, and I liked that very very much too, enough to cling to it well after it was plain for anyone to see that it wasn’t working for me anymore.

And the thought that I had was that if we arrived at the dock at the end of our sunset excursion, and there was waiting for me at the dock a limousine, and a man told me that if I got into the limousine I would be conveyed to a life where I could resume making movies, and that making the movies would, as it had before, provide for my family’s well-being, and be as satisfying as it had been before it became very unsatisfying…

Well the thought that I had is that I don’t know what I would do. If I continues sailing, I would continue to miss making movies. If I returned to making movies, I would miss sailing as much as I miss making movies now.

So then, that’s a lucky place to be, isn’t it? Now here’s a movie I made about boat-building and fishing some 10+ years ago.