Zyg Durski. The name screams character. Not as in weird. But the man in whom I found no guile. The worst we got was a little too nervous from coffee. But calm, considerate, thoughtful, generous. I am glad to call him Friend.
This man traveled, by his lonesome, from Nashville Tennessee, to Mobile Bay. All in a 30′ Hunter built in 1979. By himself.
We tried to hook up when I sailed with Joe Hagan out of New Orleans but we passed in Mobile Bay.
On a whim, the weather was dropping below 20 again. I booked a flight on Allegiant Airlines. http://www.allegiantair.com/, round trip, for $100 to Punta Gorda, FL. Everything from booking, check in with seat selection, baggage was all done on my phone.
Zyg had anchored off Fisherman’s Wharf. Wouldn’t you know it. Rained for 3 days. and then wind was on our nose. It was a real challenge to step off into the dingy in the high winds, rain, and lightweight dinghy.
We stayed in a marina for one night.
And then started out towards North Captiva Island where I once owned a home. It was getting late and we had to stay in the narrow ICW or risk running aground. Just a mile from our destination the engine starting losing power. Zyg made the decision to anchor immediately. As grace would have it, we anchored right between Caggage Key (http://cabbagekey.com/) home of Jimmy Buffet’s Cheeseburger in Paradise and Useppa Island.
The next morning was beautiful but wind on our nose at 15-20.
We anchored off the airstrip on North Captiva Island and went ashore for lunch at Barnacle Phil’s.
My cousin Zeke and his fiancee Ashland McGuire Simms live on North Captiva.
The next morning we were not sure of the best course of action. The wind was 20mph and the bay was shallow. Finally we both had a sense of peace to leave for Burnt Store Marina. It was soon to become my inspiration for getting Shadow ready to travel.
Once when I was traveling to Canada with my Uncle Hunter, a 20hr trip all in one day, he began to tell me a story about John Jay Hooker. He said ” well to make a long story short” I stopped him there and said “we have a 20 hour trip. Take all the time you need. Well Uncle Hunter was a good storyteller. So for 10 hours he told the story. Left the other 10 hours for another story. Well this is a long story. Here we go.
I spent 6 months looking at every Marina around for a boat. There were some good ones but not the right one. Finally I saw an online ad for a boat in Kentucky.
She was stripped bare and been on the hard for 10 years. She needed extensive amounts of work but great bones. She was a Morgan 36′ design. Love at first sight.
We drove up to Rottering Marina in Kentucky to look at her on a Sunday. I called the owner the next day to say I wanted to meet and see her. I met a woman named Sue.
The next week I offered full asking price but was informed I had to pay quickly because of a pending bankruptcy. I decided to wait until that was settled. Six months went by. She was still available and I made the same offer. Now there was a divorce to be settled with the owner. I waited another 6 months. Finally that was settled and I bought her!
A long journey was to inSue.
This boat had a pedigree. She was first purchased by Morris Truman in Ft. Myers, Florida. He raced her with great success. He really loved this boat he named Remote. Sue was college roommates with his daughter and sailed her and loved her. Truman aged and donated Remote to a Wesleyan college in Kentucky where a sailing program was started. Sadly the school did not take care of her and she went up for sale. Sue bought her. Her X worked on the boat for 10 years and did needed work but never sailed her.
As soon as the sale was finalized we started to sand the bottom and repaint her for a voyage to Harbor Island Yacht Club in Nashville where I grew up a father was Commodore in 1971.
I worked on here there for three years. Putting back all the hardware and rigging and learning to race her.
I had wondered about a name change. Then I had a dream one night I was sailing her down a waterway in Canada with rocky shores and dangerous turns. We pulled into a dock with great relief when she turned into a horse a flew away. She returned and I knew her name was Shadowfax (after Lord of the Rings). I saw that same boat name several times in the next month and shortened it to Shadow.
There are seasons when you get beat down. And there are those when you rise up. This is a season of Rising Up.
This IS a season of Rising UP.
For example. I was encouraged by and friend and brother to start a Travel blog. At first I laughed and then I thought it was the perfect confluence of talents.
So I am creating BySeaByShore.
My first photograph was of a bolt of lightning I caught on camera. As I was telling a friend the other day ” I am creating a website and on th cover is a bolt…and before I could say it a bolt of lightning lit the sky. As luck would have it.
Right.
As I will post later, I had a horrible incident that almost took my life.
More on that in another post.
But today a friend, out of the blue, called and said he had overheard I might need some temporary housing. He offered his big house on the Lake. Also said he really liked my dog Max.
Wired an LED bathroom light,
On a whim, the weather was dropping below 20 again. I booked a flight on Allegiant Airlines. 
in a marina for one night.
