A Pilot Logbook Story About a Boat
February 5, 1991
Professional pilots do have other interests outside aviation. One of mine toward the latter half of my career was sailing. Though, to be true, how sailboats sail share much the same principles as how airplanes fly. But there's something magical about when you take the tiller and pull in the main sheet and the boat begins moving, just due to the wind and not due to an engine. The sailboat that I had was a Sea Pearl 21 - photo below taken on the beach at Muskegon, Michigan - a trailerable boat I could take to many different lakes on my days off.
The trip on the date logged was to Tampa, Florida, not far from Tarpon Springs, where my Sea Pearl was built. So on this day, I grabbed a courtesy crew car and headed up there to visit the builder's workshop, at that time Marine Concepts (not the same company by the same name today). I got a tour of the shop and saw a Sea Pearl 28, a larger version of my boat, under construction.
Funny how many pilots are also sailors. For example, two of my company's other pilots also had sailboats. Yet, think of how the two: pilots and sailors, airplanes and sailboats, have a lot in common. So maybe it makes perfect sense. I no longer have the Sea Pearl. I miss airplanes and flying most of all, but I miss my sailboat and sailing, too.
12-02-2022
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