Oh, decisions, decisions! So many choices.
I was once a sailor. I lived on the Mississippi Gulf coast for 25 years and went through three boats. My last one was built for off-shore fishing and from April till football season by "normal" routine was to load up the boat after work on Thursday, leave at midnight, and come back in Sunday afternoon. We did not even drop a hook in the water until dawn, Friday, usually approximately 100 miles out. There is nothing more beautiful than seeing a sunset, a sunrise, or the night sky when you are 100-150 miles out in the Gulf. One cannot even begin to imagine how many stars are seen when there is absolutely no light around. There is practically no space between stars when you view the sky from that environment. And we caught our fair share of fish, which is why I went out. When we loaded out chests and fish-box with ice, I purchased 2200 pounds of ice!
After ten+ years of doing this, year after year after year, this sort of fishing wore me out. In the beginning years, I would feel tired most of Monday and then would feel fine. In the later years, I would be exhausted through Wednesday. I finally knew I could not continue this routine and donated the boat to the Gulf Coast Research Center. They used the boat as a student boat, taking out marine biology students from the University of Southern Mississippi and Mississippi State University. Thus the boat went to a good cause. I still miss that boat and the wonderful solitude it afforded me.
