Carhartt sailors

Ghosting along, barely making way in a snowstorm through a narrow channel, reaching from buoy to buoy barely able to see the next one as we passed. Dressed in the winter clothing of choice in the North, the ubiquitous insulated coveralls in traditional light brown. One or the other of us once in a while had to step forward to shake the snow out of the shelf above the boom, snow wet and heavy enough to weigh down the mainsail.

Except for the temperature and the clothing and the snow and the latitude, the time was right for one of Jimmy Buffet's classic reverent songs about sailing. As a matter of fact the subject came up. It must be fairly easy to wax poetic about a peaceful voyage in the Caribbean. Let Jimmy and his tropical shipmates face a storm north of 60, facing into a biting wind, snow catching on your eyelashes, your fingers cold and almost frozen to the wheel or tiller. Yeah, that was it, Jimmy, put on a suit of Carhartts and join us on an icy deck in the sub arctic.

But we couldn't blame him for our current discomfort. Nor could we enjoy his sailing music. But minds wander in the cockpits of the world, even in the north and we got to discussing the idea of writing a song for him about those hardy folks who sail in snowstorms. We emerged from the snowstorm and the wind picked up and we sailed home but the idea remained and over time we came to call ourselves Carhartt sailors. At one point my partner on that trip showed me some verses she had written for a song on the subject. They have disappeared somewhere, but the idea remains.

Tomorrow I am rejoining the ranks of those sailors, sailing out of Juneau, Alaska, on a 41-foot sailboat, to spend a few days or weeks sailing and fishing for silver salmon and generally enjoying the fall storms of Southeastern Alaska.  It's the time of year to at least think of pulling on those Carhartts.

"... We're calling everyone to ride along, to another shore.  We can laugh our lives away and be free once more."

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