Excerpt: Hapless Photographer

I grew up far from the sea. A mining town where water was how you washed up and cleaned the ore. Lakes were better for fishing than sailing and the horizon was always hidden behind scrub pine and worn mountains.

But I had been born a maritimer, from a line of sailors going back 200 years. It wasn't long before I made my way back to the coast, to find the smell of salt was the home I'd been missing.

I got into the usual trouble a young man finds to pass his time. Learned a trade and had a hobby. I saved my money and bought a used sloop. Just big enough for one man to sail with ease. Big plans were made to see the world, every weekend and holiday was spent on the water, learning her secrets and building that reservoir in my soul that would let me escape the orbit of everyday life.