A corporate charter and a weird coincidence

By Sailor Keddy -
Last week I was called by the local sailboat rental company that has my name on their list of skippers and they asked me to take a boat out in a corporate charter/regatta. It's not a regatta in the traditional sense of the word, but more of Proctor and Gamble renting out literally 26 high-end sailboats for a "retreat" for their desk monkeys. As the race coordinator was going over the course with the skippers, I struck up a conversation with the guy next to me. He happened to have started in Key West awhile back and I was asking him about schooners down there. He said Newport was the place to be and that his brother worked on one there, as well as being the captain for Dorade (read that link, its an amazing boat).

I was stunned and asked him, "wait a second, are you Green's brother Jesse?? I've used your Port Supply account!" Yes, I was speaking with none other than the brother of the person who was the captain of Aquidneck, lived literally "next door" to me at the anchorage in Newport and taught me volumes of valuable sailing knowledge. An amazing and weird coincidence.

The charter went well, I was listening to the typical "the boss isn't around" banter of my clients on board. The people I had on the boat reminded me exactly of people in the office I had worked in. So much so, I could actually pick exact people to pair them with. Different strokes for different folks, as they say. As for myself, I was stroking against a strong current at that job. It's been over a year since I left and I can't say its a decision I regret in the least.

"If a man is to be obsessed with something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most." - E. B. White

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