Here's to Blue Blazes

We sailor's are a crazy lot. Talk to any sailor who has owned a boat that they've loved and you'll soon learn that they will refer to it as if it were human....or at the very least animal. "She was a great boat!" you'll hear them say. And for some reason they are always female ..."like gentle nymphs of the sea" I guess you could say. To us Blue Blazes is no exception.

She is not exactly in the prime of her life, but then again neither are we, but we still think she's a brave little boat to do what she has done for us. She's travelled away from her familiar waters of the Great Lakes for which she was created and took us out into the big ocean. She put in some very long days, and many times, pushing on long after we had run out of steam.

And she never complained...except for that one time when we ran her aground and broke her transmission.....that hurt! We felt really bad about that, but after we fixed her up and gave her a rest she performed for us like she was young again.

She protected us, sheltered us, got us through some very scary situations, and even some very rough seas. And when she would bring us into a harbour after such times we would wash her down and buff her up. She would really like that and would gleam like a shiny new penny. People would come by and comment on how pretty she looked and we would say to ourselves, "that's our girl".

When we ask her to go fast, you should see her go! She loves to show off, but it wouldn't be right to brag about her, so we tell people that she is a spirited little boat. She doesn't take offence to this though because she knows how proud we are of her without having to say it.

She's getting old now but she still has a lot of life left in her. Having said that though, we don't plan to do this to her again. We may have to adopt a new baby sister if we plan to do anything like that but we are ever so thankful to our old girl.

If it wasn't for Blue Blazes we wouldn't appreciate the simpler things in life and certainly wouldn't have realized that there is life without T.V., or a microwave oven. She has been trustworthy, faithful, comforting, and tireless to the end. To reward her we are sending her on a nice road trip home where she will, once again, bask in the beautiful waters of Georgian Bay.

Here's to Blue Blazes!

Cheers

p.s. Blue Blazes is a CS 36 traditional