Spill The Wine Sailing

From sailing the “KOOL floating bathtub” on Lake Thunderbird with Dad as a teenager until my next boat, I had many years pass and many things to keep me occupied.    Cars, girls, college, career, and kids – all the normal stuff.   But in my thirties I realized I missed heading out to the lake for a few hours of fun on the water and decided it would be a good idea to buy a boat of my own.   It was nearly twenty years from my first sailing days, but I bought my first boat.   The infallible Flying Scot. The Flying Scot sailing Lake Thunderbird - with my Dad, Mom, son Jordan, and myself onboard Those were busy days.   A family and a company with lots of travel left little time for sailing.   But occasionally, I could make my escape to the lake.   It never failed to happen, whatever worries, or concerns, or stress I might have been feeling at the time, sailing allowed me to focus on the water, the wind, and of course relaxing and having fun – everything to do with work and the stre

My Dad was an avid smoker, and Kool cigarettes tended to be his favorite brand. So, as it turned out back in 1975, Kool cigarettes ran a promotion and if you filled in your name and address on the back of one of their cartons and returned it to the company, you could win something.  My Dad did just that, and much to everyone’s unsuspecting surprise,  he won fourth place.  One can probably guess his prize, a small bathtub sized sailboat. He was ecstatic.  It instantaneously became his pride and joy. Dad didn’t know how to sail and it likely didn't occur to him to care.  To him, more importantly, mechanically, he figured out how to hoist and strap that sailing bathtub to the top of his car.  Thereafter, when he needed to unwind from his job and family of five children, he loaded up snacks and beer and headed to the local lake to find peace on the water, some fourteen miles away on Lake Thunderbird in Norman, Oklahoma. “The Kool Cigarette Floating Bathtub” – a sis

1.  Sailboats 2.  Folding Bikes 3.  Charleston, SC   Our first day exploring Charleston by bike.  Super fun!!!

This was the mantra on my recent vacation/adventure to help my brother transport his Island Packet 485 , a 51' 7" full foil keel sailing yacht named Spill The Wine from Kay Largo, FL to Charleston, SC, a mere 640 nautical miles (nm) in 8 days.   Sailing can be a relaxing time, but that was not the case with this trip! There were only three of us on the boat: Michael Miller, Barbara Collins, and I; so we basically planned on taking 3 hour shifts, rotating between captain, crew, and resting.   We typically started each shift by recording the captain-on-shift, date and time, trip odometer, diesel engine’s readings (RPM, temp, fuel filter pressure, and oil pressure), fuel level, battery voltage, water level in the bilge, and weather forecast.   While there was plenty of room on the boat for everyone, but “The bread is in the microwave and the knife block is in the kitchen sink” are just some of the things you do for efficient space utilization. Day 1, 4/23, Thursday, Key Lar