by Jim Kerrigan

Created on: February 01, 2010

In the summer of 1984 I was 23. I had found a sailboat in the local paper. It was a 27 foot Newport made 1974. When I went to see what the boat looked like I was impressed with the diesel engine, new paint job, size of the cockpit and the cabin. Man what a cabin for a twenty-seven footer. The combination of a raised flush decked sloop and turned bilges really gave the boat an interior volume that is beyond what one would expect from its length over all alone.

Well I got married in 1985 and divorced in 1987 and found my self on the road for three years. When I returned home the Newport was all I had as a residence. And thus in 1990 my adventure of living aboard began. I lived on board for six years leaving the boat for a house in 1996. But along the way I had probably the most memorable half decade of my life.

Bayou Chico Marina, the home of true driftwood. (The nickname I gave to the inhabitance of the marina) There were the “live-a-boards” the “day-sailors” the “sport fisherman” and the “absentee owners” who composed the largest group. Everything from lawyers and businessmen to musicians and theatre rats (Me).

Most were excellent seamen no matter their back ground. Some of us knew the sailors arts and could splice rope and make mooring lines. Those that couldn’t just bought the beer. Our cook outs were spontaneous and solely based upon what we brought back from the fishing trip. I liked living on board even as basic as my existence there was. I read more then than I do now. I walked amid Doctors and lawyers and they were in my world sailing. They made six figure incomes I made $20,000.00 a year and was happy. They would laugh at my making soup with a Mr. coffee machine and dry mix soup.

There was something about that Life that I really miss. But it isn’t just living on board it was living on board there among those people among my friends. Someday I’ll write “Driftwood” and retell the old stories and charters that I knew during the time I packed my life into a 27 foot hole in the water. I had very little but I enjoyed the company of good people and lived in a place that for a time wages and social place dissolved into friendship and all for a love of boating.

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