So how in the world did I end up with 3 (THREE) sailboats?My most current love, Olivia (Westerly Centaur), a 23 San Juan (No Name) and a 22 Rhodes (Le Menagerie). Just yesterday it seems I was between boats. My 30 foot Abbott went when the twins were born, and I hardly could hardly ever bring myself to even look at a sailboat during those years.

The one day the sailing bug struck (again), and I started furtively scoping out the want ads in the papers, casting longing glances at the Yacht-Trader magazine, watching canvas laden stick boats gliding back and forth on the bay, heading to the Brazos Santiago Pass. Longing to be there. Watching the boats as I crossed the three mile long causeway, dreaming that some day it would be me.

I found Le Menagerie in the Island paper one day and started scheming about how to make it happen. I approached a friend of mine and spun the Jimmy Buffett dream. Idyllic islands and blue water (pretty much what we have here). He was a sucker, his own father who had died when he was quite young was a sailor, and Chris longed to be one too. So we split the cost 50-50. Over the next three years, I put in uncountable hours of sweat equity, slip fees and routine maintenance and upgrades. For the most part, Chris was a silent partner.

I sailed ever given opportunity logging days and days behind the tiller. Then along came bigger boat fever, and I acquired a beat up old Buccanner 26, cheap. What a dog. But I put some money into the old Volvo 2 cylinder, scraped and scraped the nasty old headliner, but finally gave up when it got hot and the job seemed like just another rebuild for a boat that I really wasn't in love with to begin with. So I traded it for a San Juan 23 that needed some TLC, and I resealed the hull to deck joint under the toerail, recalked the windows, replaced the bulkead and chainplates, painted, sealed, cleaned and upgraded and pretty much put the old girl back into sailing shape.

But something was still missing, and so I finally dived back in with both feet and found Olivia. I vowed to never take on another project boat that was less than 75% complete when I got it.

Now Le Menagerie sits against the dock, wasting away, and the San Juan is alongside, for the most part in the state I last worked on her in. I have a new main and a roller furling jib, but no time or desire to sail either one. They both need bottom paint, and each weekend I promise to at least haul Le Menagerie, which has a trailer. But something always comes up.

I'm gonna do it this weekend for sure. No excuses. The two smaller boats deserve better, they deserve a good home. I'm a real schmuck for ignoring them. It's terrible to be smitten by big boat fever. I should be severly chastized.

Oh yeah, I was. Olivia munched the waterpump, and I'm too stinkin' broke (a lot of the reason is trying to keep two other boats) to afford a new one. Maybe I'll make a sign like the homeless guys who live under the overpasses in Brownsville who stand on the streetcorner with signs that read: "Will Work for Food".....only my sign will read: "Will Work for Expensive Boat Parts".

Better yet. I could stop being a spineless weenie, put the two other boats up for sale, and convert them into boat-units for Olivia, who demands all of my attention.

Now that's a plan......