“I was just reading along and I started to think, hey, that sounds like what happened to us. Then I looked at the cover photo and thought, ‘That looks just like me!’”
Followers, this was Mitch speaking, and I couldn’t not share this with you. Many of you may already know Mitch─either personally or you feel a sort of close kinship to him from reading my book, Salt of a Sailor. He was “Neal Armstrong stepping on the moon” every time he stepped on the deck of our boat. Ka-boom! He was the “elephant going through a carwash” as he bumbled and climbed up and down the companionway stairs─an uncomfortable display which eventually caused his evolution into Mitch “While-You’re-Down-There” Roberts because every time Phillip or I would hint─even slightly─that we might─just possibly─could be in some way headed down below, he would start in with: “While you’re down there.” But, Mitch was also the man with the “heart of gold” who made a huge commitment in helping Phillip and I bring our Niagara 35 home across the Gulf of Mexico in some pretty rough seas. Thank you Mitch. However, he also─like me apparently─suffers from the occasional blonde moment. This one, in particular, was quite entertaining.
So, Mitch is hanging around the airport last week, waiting for his son’s plane to come in and he’s looking for something to read. He meanders into one of the many book and magazine corner stores in the airport and, being a bit of an avid sailor and water-sports kind of guy, picks up the September issue of SAIL Magazine. Mitch starts thumbing through, skimming the table of contents and eventually finds his way to this page, where he thinks an article about the occasional need for a hacksaw on a sailboat might be entertaining.
So, here’s what he tells Phillip and I about the incident:
“So, I─you know─look at the picture and I’m checking out the dinghy back there all crashed out in the water with the davits and all, I see the crew trying to cut it off, and I think, hey, that sounds like what happened to us.”
It IS what happened to us, Mitch. That’s us. But this thought hasn’t yet struck him.
“So, I start reading and, sure enough, it sounds exactly like us, so I start thinking who wrote this? I see Annie’s name up there and know, once again, I’m going to have to correct this story.”
You have to know this is a long-standing (friendly) disagreement between Mitch and I. He likes to think he didn’t get as sea-sick as he actually did on our inaugural passage, and he likes to pretend the whole incident with the “broccoli crappola” didn’t happen (if you’re not familiar with the event, I highly recommend the book), or at least that it wasn’t his fault because we shouldn’t have fed him broccoli. Yeah, we should have known better. Who eats that crap anyway?
But, here’s the real kicker. Once everything finally clicks into place and Mitch realizes this is not just a similar incident, but the actual incident, he then finally takes in the illustration for what it really is─a depiction of us cutting off the dinghy. (Which, awesome illustration accompanying the article by the way. Thank you SAIL Magazine and Jan Adkins!) And, you know what Mitch says about the drawing?
“Now that’s an accurate representation. That looks just like me.”
Yeah, okay buddy. It looks just like you.
If you guys haven’t seen the article yet, be sure to pick up a copy of the September issue of SAIL Magazine and enjoy!
Thanks to my Patrons who help me share the journey. Get inspired. Get on board.
