Out Cruisin’
Out Cruisin’ - Out Cruisin’- Out Cruisin’ - Out Cruisin’ - O
A Night To Remember By Drew Whitler of S/V Impulsive It had been a long couple of days. I had headed out of Charleston Harbor on my 1987 Morgan 41 Classic, Impulsive. With me was my oldest friend in the world, Hod Arnett. We have known each other since kindergarten and have been best friends through grade school, high school, college, and even the USAF. He had been with me on one very major trip I had taken with Impulsive and several charters in the BVI. We were on our way to Fernandina Beach to meet up with another crew member, Marty Coalson. He and I worked together for a number of years and he had been interested in sailing for some time. This was to be his first adventure on a sailboat, to test if this was really something he wanted to do. You know the dream (thanks to Gardner McKay and his ship the Tiki as it plied the waters of the South Pacific)... sell the house, buy the boat and take the wife, sans kids, on that round
the world sail. Even as I type this, and I already have a boat, I keep thinking… count me in, Marty!! I had been trying to dissuade him of that idea until he took the kind of trip he was signing up for with Hod and me. His wife, Dianne, seemed truly grateful. Well, he was on a schedule and waiting for us at the marina in Fernandina Beach, FL. Now, Hod and I and a couple of others had tried to sail around the ICW in Georgia several years ago on a journey from the Chesapeake to the Keys, but the Atlantic kept suggesting, and in no uncertain terms, that we might be better off trying the long and winding route through Georgia on the ICW. We had tried for Florida, but made only 13 miles in 14 hours. Stono inlet, the first inlet from the Atlantic south of Charleston, looked like a likely respite. Now I know others would have said, why not keep going, but this
Out Cruisin’- Out Cruisin’ - Out Cruisin’ - Out Cruisin’- Out Cruisin’ - Out Cruisin’ - Out Cruisin’- Out Cruisin’ - Out Cruisin’ Out 134 Summer 2013 pg 134-141 Out Cruising.indd 2
Cruising
4/30/13 10:25 AM
