Rick and Salty II on Swifts Neck Beach

Captain Rick

I love boats, all kinds of boats. I love boating. I love everything about boating. I love fixing stuff on the boat, crawling around in the bilge, figuring stuff out and making it work. I love hanging around on the boat and goin’ places. Heck! I love sittin’ on the aft deck and goin’ no place. ‘Nuff said? I don’t think so!

1966, 16 foot Lyman lapstrake, 35 horsepower Johnson, Charles River Waltham. Jeez! I wasn’t even shaving yet and I was zipping out of Purgatory Cove with my friends Vinnie and Donald. It was freedom and adventure and most of all, danger! The holy trinity of boaters. Boating means different things to different people and we all eventually settle into our own particular style that we enjoy.

Me? I’ve been a “cruiser” ever since I got my first cuddy cabin with a camper canvas. A sweet little Sea Ray 200 with a V-6 Mercruiser and Alpha One outdrive. I thought it was so cool to go boating and then stay overnight on your boat. And so that is what I do in Ginger Lee, an old diesel powered Trojan F-32. She’s not fancy but she’s got character and does everything I need her to do for the type of boating I enjoy. But that’s just me. There are so many reasons to go boating. What’re yours?

XO

The XO learned to sail on a Sunfish on Lake Livingston in Texas, then graduated to a South Coast 23 on Lake Ponchartrain in Louisiana. She’s now at Ginger Lee’s helm 90% of the time, that is, whenever we’re not close to anything other than water and birds.