| "Why Boat Insurance Doesn't Help A Lousy Sailor" | | | | one ofthose people that Dramamine was invented for. |
| - by John Edwardson | | | | I get seasick watchinga pirate movie or riding a |
| For thousands of years men have sailed the seas. | | | | Washington State Ferry, that is hardly arough ride at |
| From the earliesttrips by the discoverers and settlers | | | | sea. |
| of the Americas, Australia andthe Pacific Islands, | | | | It is usually as steady as a stroll in the park. When my |
| through Odysseus' voyage to Troy and beyond tothe | | | | family goesfor a good time on the water I am waving |
| time of Swashbucklers in the Caribbean mankind has | | | | merrily from the shore. Whyan I happy? I know that |
| made excitingvoyages to the far corners of the world. | | | | my family will be safe; they use life vests,weather |
| In those early days hard cold steel and brass | | | | radio and GPS and have boat insurance. |
| protected the men andtheir ships. Today we have | | | | I on the other hand will not be 'feeding the fishes' and |
| boat insurance, GPS systems, sonar andunderwater | | | | watching theroll of the horizon waiting for the next |
| charts. | | | | 'heave ho'. |
| While boat insurance is not as glamorous as a fancy | | | | As a young man I was fascinated by everything |
| cutlass nor asexciting as a cannon it does offer the | | | | related to the sea. |
| boat owner something that allthe cutlasses and | | | | Vikings and their ocean riding serpents, pirates and |
| cannons cannot. It can replace your ship if youlose it. In | | | | theirmagnificent galleons, the US Navy and their valiant |
| the wild and wooly days of wooden ships and iron | | | | ships of steelwere all fodder for my young imagination. |
| men youusually needed one ship to steal another. | | | | I loved to dream about the time of cannons and cold |
| Why not just sail away or blast somebody to flinders if | | | | steel when menwere men and lived by the code of |
| they aretrying to steal your boat? | | | | the sea. Now we have the GPS, sonarand boat |
| I must make a confession; I make a terrible sailor. I am | | | | insurance. Still I make a lousy sailor. |