As President Teddy Roosevelt once said: “Nothing in this world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty. No kind of life is worth leading if it is always an easy life.” Words to live by! And one of the many reasons I’m so fond of sailing. Talk about difficulty!
I found myself mulling these. Take, for example, the piece by inveterate DIYer and regular contributor Roger Hughes on installing a new bit of cabin sole. He makes it all sound so easy, at least until you get to the part of the story when he mentions—ever so briefly, and with admirable British aplomb—the job it did on his back, an admission anyone who has done any kind of boat work can sympathize with. Bleeding knuckles, aching shoulders you name it, whether it’s sanding off last year’s antifouling or something as little as having to deal with a recalcitrant block. Fortunately, the feeling when you’re back underway and your boat is reeling off the knots like a house afire can’t be beat—in no small part because you’ve earned it.
