Four Guys in a Boat

Book excerpt: "When does a man quit the sea?" asked E.B. White. "Does he quit while he's ahead, or wait till he makes some major mistake?" Skipper and the crew seem to thrive pushing for the latter. Sailing alongside killer whales. Flying the Canadian flag upside down while coasting blithely into Victoria. Debating who gets left behind the day they have to squeeze into the three-man lifeboat. Interrogated by the US Coast Guard. Running aground. Losing themselves in blinding sea fog. Standing rapt beneath Taps' benediction as the American flag retires in Roche Harbor. For Kjell, John, Ed, and Skipper, sailing is about far more than simply passing time on the water. It's about the love of familiar faces and the thirst for new horizons-on land or sea. It's about the bond created by the sheer accumulation of memories, just a few of which are in this book. What else could explain why four grandpas (all north of sixty) spend four days navigating the San Juan islands every summer for fifteen years, when only one of them grew up sailing and he (given the opportunity) might cheerfully capsize the boat?