July 21, 2026

  

 

In the late seventies I bought a musical instrument after seeing an ad in the Whole Earth Review. Over the next several years I learned how to get a note out of it and how to read its distinctive music. Though I always kept it near, decades would go by without any serious attempt to master it.

 

Just before I retired, I decided to get serious and took several lessons from the preeminent player in the USA. He was gracious and encouraging, and a larger-than-life character. But the remote, and in the days before Zoom and Skype, the technically convoluted lessons were not working for me. I sought out a local teacher and under his tutelage made progress.

 

But don’t worry, this story is not about my musical endeavors, it is about the camaraderie that that instrument engendered and how cruising on Carrie Rose did a similar thing.

 

This comradeship takes many forms. There are harbor friends, yacht club friends, boat yard friends, and then there are cruising friends. Meeting a fellow cruiser is on par with meeting up with an old friend where the conversation begins like it never ended all those years ago.

 

It does not seem to matter if, like us, the folk have cruised the Great Lakes and the eastern seaboard, or they have spent the last 15 years on a world cruise. There is a direct connection that putting oneself at the mercy of the sea engenders. I cannot explain it other than that.

 

Most of the friendships are transitory because, of course, the thing about cruising is the constant motion. We have met people in Maine that we knew in the Chesapeake a decade ago. The boat is usually recognized first and then we search our “little grey cells” to put a face to it.

 

There are deeper connections. In our case many are due to our distinctive craft. Carrie Rose was purchased in 2003 and spent her first summer with us the next year. When we finally began to cruise with her, we made close sustaining friends that last to this day.

 

Maine is a unique place in that when I start up a conversation with a fellow boater, I never know if they have just bought a boat or have just come in off an Atlantic crossing. This keeps me humble. No matter what Charlotte and I have accomplished on Carrie Rose, no matter what knowledge we have gained, many have equaled or surpassed us.

 

This fact alone keeps cruising interesting or should I say, compelling. Despite the cost, the maintenance, the moments of terror, this keeps our little part of the world expanding rather than contracting. And there is no way to put a value on that . . .   

 

 South Bristol, ME