Friend Steve Vogel retired from CSR Marine last Tuesday.  I realized its end of an era. I first met Steve when we both were livaboards at Kelly’s Landing some 33 years ago. Our two boats couldn’t have been more different.  He had a very traditional single hull wooden cruiser.   I had the lightweight trimaran.  He was often game (or crazy enough) to do races with me on my old tri Smoholla the Shaman. More than once he found himself crewing with me at Point No Point, after midnight, with a gale shrieking, as the boat is fully out of the water slugging to windward.
Or the day he ran me up my mast in a late December evening snowstorm, went back to his warm boat, and forgot about me. NPR was riveting. the mast was covered with ice and it was getting darker. I really had no options. I tried yelling. The snowfall got so heavy, all sound was absorbed. He remembered an hour later. He still laughs about that.
He will be cycling in France. Have good one Steve.