“Clyde” is my new best friend.  I’m lucky, I have a number of good friends. My wife Carol is my dearest and best friend. “Clyde” is a different kind of friend though, I guess mainly because “Clyde” is not a person -- “Clyde” is a boat. I’m sorry, I’d better be careful (Clyde might get angry); what I meant to say is “Clyde” is my boat.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved the water and I’ve loved boats. I didn’t grow up near water or in a family that boated. (Although my late father built museum quality ship models, like the one in our parlor here at the Inn, the “Emma C. Berry”). I have early 8mm movies of myself in a small family swimming pool with a car tire inner-tube and some ply-wood and a makeshift paddle.  I remember I made believe I was traveling around the world. I also remember playing in the attic inside old suitcases. I would open them up and sit in them and make believe they were boats.

I got my first boat when I was about 12. I had a paper route and saved up to buy what was called “Snark.” It was 12 feet long, had a lanteen sail and a dagger board. I was so excited; I just thought I would put the boat in the water and go. I had no idea about wind direction, sail positions or how to come about. After capsizing three or four times I picked up a book at the library on how to sail. It was like a whole new world. I loved it. I had three sail boats in my earlier years, the 12 footer, a really nice O’Day day sailor and a 26 foot Macgregor. I got rid of the last one about 10 years ago when I bought my second house.  It was very time consuming to have this big boat on a trailer, because even once I trailered it to the lake or bay depending on where I was going, it would take me at least an hour to rig it (put the mast up, attach the sails, etc.) before I could even put it in the water. Fun, but too much effort.

So for the last number of years I’ve been content with a kayak. Loads of fun, easy to take anywhere (except the parking garage of a center city Philly “Whole Foods” market and forgetting they were on top of the car, yikes). I still have my kayaks and will always enjoy them.

Then I met “Clyde”.

When my wife, Carol and I bought this beautiful Inn, we couldn’t believe we had such a beautiful mansion in such a beautiful water setting. I could imagine sailing again this time on the C & D canal and the Chesapeake Bay. Shortly after moving here I found out there were canal rules, “No sailing or paddling on the canal.” Too dangerous with the big tankers and cargo ships passing through.

Crap, what was I going to do? That would mean I would have to take the sailboat out and motor without sails 8 miles until I got to the bay, then and only then could I raise my sails and sail. 

Carol said, "Get a power boat!"  A power boat? But I’m a sailor. I’ve always been a sailor. Even my email address is “thesailorbob”. What seemed like the only alternative started me thinking and researching different boats. I went online, boattrader.com, Craig’s list, eBay, etc. I didn’t want anything too big, something to easily trailer around, and something in excellent condition. Cracked fiberglass, rusty trailers, needs TLC, so many of the ads read…..no thank you.

I became interested in small center console boats, big enough for 4-6 people. Just for day boating around the canal, area rivers and the Bay. I was looking for a number of weeks and had bookmarked a number of possible ones. Then while searching on eBay, I came across a “Vintage” boat. Hmmmm! I hadn’t thought of a vintage boat before. There were a handful of them for sale; some were passed over right away because they needed complete restoration. There were a couple I liked, but now another problem. One was in Michigan, the other in Texas. Sorry, I’m not driving that far for a boat. I narrowed my searches to just a couple of hundred miles from home.

Then one day I saw him. It was “Clyde.” A 1954 mahogany boat in near perfect shape, a 33 horse power 1960’s Johnson outboard, totally rebuilt and a brand new galvanized trailer. I’ve always liked galvanized better than painted trailers for obvious reasons: rust.  This time the boat was a little closer - Connecticut. Even better, once I started a dialog with the seller he offered to drive the boat to exit 3 of the N.J. turnpike.  Great, that would save me a couple of hours each way. I ended up offering $700 less than what he was asking and he accepted.

Wow, I’m a boat owner again.   I got a hitch installed on my Camry, drove up on a Tuesday and picked it up in a hotel parking lot off of the exit of the Turnpike. It trailered very nicely. I got her home and put her in the back yard, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to use her for a while. I had to get tags for the trailer, registration for the boat and we had too much going on. The Inn was busy, Sam, one of our daughters, was graduating from University of Pennsylvania, Carol just broke her foot and in two days we were headed to England to visit my oldest daughter, Allison, who was doing a semester abroad in London. So much fun, but hectic - material for another blog.

So a month later my youngest daughter Sarah, her lifelong friend, Jess, Carol and I took “Clyde” out for our maiden voyage. The trailering, launching and driving (all of us took turns) and retrieving the boat went as near perfect as possible.   We went for about a two and a half hour ride on the Bohemia River, absolutely beautiful. Clyde handled very well, the steering a little stiff but I was very pleased with the performance.

I am so excited about the rest of the season, there are almost an infinite amount of different spots to put in and explore along the Chesapeake Bay and its neighboring tributaries. I will share them with you as we do them. Thanks for listening!

            .