Sea Tales

I've been reflecting lately on how draining emotionally, mentally, and physically the past year has been for me due mostly to the global pandemic. Almost every single plan I had from my work and personal perspective went up in flames as the impact of Covid on my day-to-day life set in. And recently this made me reflect on one of the most significant life lessons from my early childhood.

My dad loved to fish, so he always owned some sort of boat that we'd take out on the weekends on the Detroit River. On reflection, the fact that I'm only 5'7" is probably due in part to eating the fish we caught from the polluted state of the Detroit River in the 1970s. Anyways... the boats he owned were always small fishing craft under 20 feet in length. Then one day at the marina my dad noticed a cabin cruiser that was slowly falling apart in dry dock. Evidently, the guy that owned it had passed away and his widow couldn't afford to maintain it. The boat was infested with wood rot, the engine had seized up, and the cabin interior was shot. The marine owners were about to have the boat junked when my father, out of nowhere and consulting with no one, bought the boat for $500. And just like that, we became the laughing stock of the marina. No one ever thought this boat would ever sail again. Which is exactly the type of motivation my old man needed.

This is how I ended up spending the winter, spring, summer, and fall of 1974 refurbishing a 1963 37 ft Chris-Craft Constellation with my dad. I spent pretty much every weekend as a 9-year-old sanding, painting, running to the marina store for parts, and basically acting as my dad's "gopher" while we working on this wreck. And I'll be damned if we didn't have an official boat launch with Rivet at the end of April 1975. My dad was an ironworker - hence the boat name.

My memories of the summer of 1975 are taking this lovely boat out every single chance we could. Definitely every weekend at a minimum. We fished, swam, cruised, slept overnight, and even watched the 4th of July fireworks from Rivet. I'll always remember that summer with fondness.

That fall my mother was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. She was declared legally blind and confined to a wheelchair in a six month period. By that following summer, we were significantly in debt with hospital and medical bills had sold our 2 story home for a loss in order to move into a handicapped friendly ranch, and ultimately sold the boat for a loss to help cover medical expenses.

And yet, I still remember "Rivets" with fondness. My dad and I bonded over a shared goal as we worked on this "doomed" project and my family spent significant quality time together working tirelessly to launch the boat. And for one glorious summer, we enjoyed the fruits of our labor.

Funny enough, I've also experienced similar projects throughout my career. Products I've worked tirelessly on with dedicated and enthusiastic teams that never achieved production success due to unforeseen circumstances or black swan events (yes, such as Covid19). And if we're honest, we all have at one time or another experienced "sure bet" product launch failures.

The people I admire are the ones who've been through the crucible and come out stronger on the other side. And I know so many of us will, once we've moved on to the post-Covid world, whatever that new normal will be.

So let's encourage each other through these trying times. Reach out to people you know and check in on them. Jump on a Google Meet and talk with friends you haven't seen in ages. Find a younger team member and offer to mentor them.

In the end, your time is the most precious commodity you can give to others. And I'm so happy my family took full advantage of our time in the summer of 1975.