Who Has The Right Stuff?
06 April 2018 | Puerto Los Cabos Marina, San Jose del Cabo, Mexico
In my mind, that is me in the upper left photo above. Clearly I have “the right stuff”, just as Tom Wolfe described in his best-selling book about the test pilots who became the American astronauts.
In the past only men had the right stuff, but today we are more enlightened. Regardless of your sex, race, or whatever you too can imagine yourself like me in the upper left photo, clearly manifesting the right stuff.
As captain of S/V Ubiquity, and hence purveyor of the right stuff, I decreed two nights ago that we would watch the documentary video “Deep Water”. So at night, lying ahull ten miles off the Baja, captain and crew watched the demise of Donald Crowhurst after months at sea on the Golden Globe Race. The next night I decreed, again as purveyor of the right stuff, that we would watch “White Squall”, a scary movie based on the loss of the tall ship Albatross in the Caribbean. So at night, at anchor in Bahia Frailes, captain and crew watched the sinking of the Albatross and the deaths of some of her crew.
For someone with the right stuff, these films should cause no trepidation. They provide the perfect tonic in preparation for S/V Ubiquity’s up-coming attempt to sail a far off-shore route to Isla Guadalupe.
But Ubiquity’s crew reported that she woke up this morning reliving some of the scenes from “White Squall” with the ship breaking up and crew drowning. She says watching the movies has increased her trepidation.
So as I, captain of S/V Ubiquity, prepare the boat for leaving San Jose del Cabo shortly, I must rejoice in having the right stuff, right? As captain of S/V Ubiquity I am the apotheosis of the right stuff, right?? Watching “Deep Water” and “White Squall” would cause me no iota of anxiety, right??? Right????