4 men, a boat and a Catalina Island trip that gave me perspective on sailing into midlife
LOS ANGELES — As the seasons turned from summer to fall this year, I turned 30 years old. To mark the milestone, I wrote an account of my sailing adventure to Catalina Island — the first first-person piece of my 4½ years at The Times.
Why? Because, as I lurch toward middle age, my biggest fear is the loss of serendipity. Or, more accurately, the loss of opportunities to do something wild and impulsive because of the responsibilities that seem to accrue with each passing year.
It was in service of preserving some of these opportunities for adventure that, three years ago, I purchased a share in a sailboat on Craigslist. Though I had gone to sailing camp as a kid — and even taught rudimentary sailing to campers during my high school years, I had little experience with bigger boats.
With her 30-foot monohulled construction, the Charmony was advertised as a “bluewater sailboat,” meaning one that could sail just about
