By the time you’re reading this, we’re smack dab in the middle of April and you’re likely sitting at your work desk, fighting off palpitations aroused by the thought of where you’ll dock this Spring. Well, at least your fluttering hearts were induced by this joyful interval … for me, it’s the other famous season that has me in its clutches. The season surrounded by unending decisions between orchids or lilies, and linen or satin. The season that marks the end and the beginning of a young man’s life all at the same time. Yes, folks, I’m talking about wedding season.
You might be asking yourself, well, what does marriage have to do with boating? The answer is simple—everything.
Allow me to rewind the hands of time back to 2022 for a moment. Somewhere in the months before winter, my boss, Dan Harding, asked me to attend an end-of-the-year classic boats, planes and cars event called Vintage Weekend, held in the Florida Keys. It was a trip I had to take my girlfriend on, he said, before going on to explain a time when he had gone stag to the very same event years prior and was forced to spend intimate dinners staring at other couples and families from his table for one, and later from the balcony of his hotel room as he sulked quietly in his private two-seater jacuzzi. He felt awkward and alone and wanted to spare me the experience.
“I can’t go,” Lauren told me with little hesitation. It wasn’t the first time she’d rejected a getaway idea from me. With a strict, traditional Japanese
