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 Tom Kohrs, the Capt'n of Dragon's Toy (a
title given to him by Dave and Dave).
Photo credit Dave Towle Nov.97 |
Sailing around the world
has not always been my dream. When I was younger, I used to have an aversion to the
sea. The mountains were much more to my liking. I had always wanted to travel
and see the sights, but my fantasies were more along the lines of a spaceship flashing
around the universe, Captain Kirk style. This
all changed when I moved to Berkeley, California in the early '80's. I lived in a
house on the side of the hill over looking the San Francisco Bay. My first week
there, I saw what I thought were ducks swimming in a flock back and forth across the
bay. One day my girlfriend pointed out that they were sailboats, not ducks (talk about
feeling stupid). From that point on, the idea of buying a sailboat and spending my life
sailing around the world became an obsession for me. |
| I had set a goal to
depart at age 35. This would give me time to sail for 10 years and then, if I wanted
to, I would still be young enough to go back to work. All I needed was money, a
boat, and to learn how to sail. Piece-of-cake! Well, age 35 came and went, and I still did not have money, and I still hadn't
even set foot on a boat, let alone learn to sail and purchase one. Thinking that I
should move to plan B, I took an overseas assignment with my company. That way I
could at least see the world while I worked.
The great thing about making a life style change as
big as moving to an overseas assignment, your mind is forced to think in different ways.
You suddenly see things that were sitting in front of you the whole time. The
end result of this, I found a sail charter company in Australia that would teach me
sailing at the same time, found two weeks to learn to sail, and then returned to Hong Kong
and purchased my first boat, a Yamaha 25. All I needed then was money. |
| Money was a little bit
harder, but fortunately, my company was doing very well and I had 10 years worth of stock
options. So money managed to take care of itself. With all of the ingredients
in place, the only thing left to do was go sailing. That is when I bought Dragon's
Toy fitted her out and headed south.
That lasted about 6 weeks before I had
to go back to work. Long story short (longer version is elsewhere),
after a couple of years working, I set out again, lasting a year this time
before the money ran out again. Fast forward another 10 years, now 20
after then original plan, I am heading out again. Hopefully, I will
make at least one circumnavigation this time. If the stock market and
world economy will just cooperate.
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What 11 years will do to a person.
Photo credit Tom Kohrs Sept '08 |
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