Re-supplying

When I graduated from college, I crewed for a friend from Florida to the Chesapeake Bay. When we came ashore, we set off to re-supply whatever provisions we had consumed. Asking directions, our first question was not, “Where is a grocery store?” Instead, having read all the books on board, we would usually ask, “Is there a bookstore nearby?”

Fresh out of college, reading was fun again instead of required. Underway, one of us was “on” and steering while the other was “standing by” and reading (as in the photo above, years later with another crew on another boat). At anchor, we would both read by the light of kerosene lamps, cradled in the warm glow of the interior woodwork.

Nowadays, most marinas have a lending library (take one, leave one) and we don’t have far to walk. If only I would stumble across a copy of Shanghaied on such a shelf.