Good Bye To Glory Days - Final blog entry

NOTE: This is the final blog entry for sailing vessel Glory Days.  As of June 2017 I have sold this wonderful boat and have purchased a different boat now.  She is an Island Packet 35 named Serenade.  I hope you enjoy the 105th and final Glory Days blog entry here.  

I also invite you to visit my new blog with Serenade can be viewed at this link:

Sailing With Joe on Serenade

Now onto the final blog entry for sailing vessel Glory Days....

"Sometimes you have to say goodbye to things in order to take on bigger things that you've always wanted to do."
Mahershala Ali



I knew this day would eventually come.  
All I can say is she certainly lived up to her name. 
Glory Days indeed.

If you've followed my blog for the past 4 years I thank you.  This will be the 106th blog post chronicling amazing adventures since I bought her March 4, 2013.  This blog has been a gracious outlet to document through photos and words how this solid boat has changed my life. She's led me to new heights and left me wanting more.  If you are a subscriber you will continue to receive blog posts once I locate my next great boat and continue.

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO VIEW ALL PAST MUSIC VIDEOS POSTED:

A Collection of My Music Video Archives

Glory Days has been my home base and passport to freedom and adventure since 2013 covering some 5000 miles on the water.  But now she is sold to a new owner.  It was time to make way for the next boat to continue this life on the sea.

 

It was June, 2017 when I sold Glory Days. 
Her sale came at an emotional cost. At first I ruminated over not asking enough money for her based on all the upgrades I'd poured into her for the past 4 years.  Lord knows, we don't even want to know how many boat dollars I spent on this lady. It's always more than I really tell people.  

But then the more I reflected on the sale, I realized something quite valuable.  You can't put a dollar value on this sort of thing... the emotions, the lessons, the victories and all the challenges she bravely led me through. The lesson's learned, the skills honed, the anchorages, the screw ups, the sunsets, and the countless people she introduced me to along the way could never have a dollar value because they are simply priceless.  

The next great boat is right around the corner. If I die tomorrow, all will have been worth it with total satisfaction in my soul.

The Bahamas, the Keys, the Chesapeake, Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and all points in between know her worth. 

The time has come to move on. She will serve a new owner now. She's already been moved to her new home on Lake Lanier.  I hope she doesn't feel too confined on a inland lake after romping so carelessly at sea. 

It's time to advance to the next level of cruising comfort. This is the beginning of a new era.  In some ways it seems senseless to sell her but on the other hand it is the most logical and reasonable next step. 

Highlights From 4+ Years of Cruising!

At the end of this post you will find the links to all 106 blog posts listed in chronological order from day one to her final outing in June 2017.

Please allow me to share some of my favorite photos and nautical quotes from the past 4 years.  Thank you. 

“Those who travel fastest see the least,

but he that would see, feel, and “hear the most

of life, nature, and God,

let him go down to the sea in a small sailing vessel.”

 L. Francis Herresmhoff

“To me, nothing made by man is more beautiful

than a sailboat under way in fine weather,

and to be on that sailboat is to be

as close to heaven as I expect to get.”

Robert Manry, Tinkerbelle, 1965”

My long time buddy, Dixon, reporting to duty. 

If a man must be obsessed by something,

I suppose a boat is as good as anything,

perhaps a bit better than most.

A small sailing craft is not only beautiful,

it is seductive and full of strange promise and the hint of trouble"            E.B. White, The Sea and the Wind that Blows

 

"What I wanted most for my daughter was that she be able to soar confidently in her own sky, whatever that may be. "
Helen Claes

"How inappropriate to call this Planet Earth, when clearly it is an ocean.""

“It never ceases to lighten my soul when I realize that through cunning and skill I have tricked the wind into moving my boat."

 David Sideman

"Hark, now and hear the sailors cry,

smell the sea, and feel the sky,

let your soul and spirit fly, into the mystic.

- Van Morrison

"That's what sailing is, a dance, and your partner is the sea. And with the sea you never take liberties.  You ask her, you don't tell her.  You have to remember always that she's the leader, not you.  You and your boat are dancing to her tune."         Michael Morpurgo, "Alone on a Wide Wide Sea"

“Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me." - Walt Whitman

"When all is said and done, the weather and love are the two elements about which one can never be sure."        Alice Hoffman

"A sailor must be patient. When it comes to sailing, there are 3 types of wind.... Too much, too little, or from the wrong direction.... "

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."       Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I just love it when I lose track of the days 

and a week flies by before you know it.

I love it when I plan the next 7 days 
around the wind forecast.

I love it when the internet will not connect, 
and the cell phone is disabled. 

I really love it when a lobster comes to my dinner table." 

Hans Gilbrook

"It takes a very long time to become young."  Picasso

"I love smiling at strangers,
Whistling at birds.
Complimenting hairdos
that others think absurd.
Spreading the kindness each bend in the road.
Living the ways of an unspoken code."  jcg

"All good things are wild and free." 

Henry David Thoreau

"Men in love with their boats don't have a lot of rationale.  They really don’t know any better and so they just surge ahead driven by a dream that's coming true right before their very eyes"    jcg

"There are many reasons to go cruising, but they can be summed up in one word: adventure. The thought of casting off those dock lines with a fully provisioned boat and reasonably blank calendar is intoxicating indeed."

From the Waterway Guide.

"In any given moment, a man's growth is optimized if he leans just beyond his edge, his capacity, his fear. He should lean just slightly beyond the edge of fear and discomfort.  Constantly.  In everything he does. Very few men have the guts for this practice." 

David Deida,  The Way of The Superior Man

 

"You only start living once you reach the end of your comfort zone" …. unknown.

 

"Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been."  Mark Twain

Boats are like women... they need to be kissed… softly and oftenly…. Both need to be driven …. hard and frequently…. dock lines should see minimal use.

 Hans Gilbrook

It’s a Key West moment when you realize

that you are in for a big surprise.

The wind blows from the east today

and every sunset has its day

for the fishermen and the tourists

the locals and the purists

It’s a Key West point of view and it’s smiling at you.                 jcg  4-19-15


"The summer never ends and the music never dies.
Everybody grins. It's a secret we can't hide"
It's a Key West state of mind and it's laughing at you."       jcg  4-19-15

"I need an eagle in my life everyday. 

Some days I need an extra eagle."         

From "Jeemer's Dream" by jcg

"We were drawn to the rhythm,

Drawn to the rhythm of the sea.

We were drawn to the rhythm,

Drawn to the rhythm of the sea."  

Sara McLachlan

"Always do what you are afraid to do."       

 Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Boys are beyond the range of anybody's sure understanding, at least when they are between the ages of 18 months and 90 years.”
― James Thurber

“One morning I woke up and was plunged into psychological shock. I had forgotten I was free!”       John Henry Abbott 

"Sitting on Sand with a blue sky above me,

Glare on the water and a Southerly breeze.

Sitting on Sand with a blue sky above me,

There is no place that I would rather be.

Trees in the distance will bend with the wind

While the pelicans land of the pilings and grin.

The castle we built will be washed to the sea.

But that's alright with me."           Hans Gilbrook (AKA jcg)

"Oh God, thy sea is so great,
and my boat is so small."
 Winfred Ernest Garrison

It's a funny thing coming home.  Nothing changes.  Everything looks the same, feels the same, even smells the same.  You realize what's changed is you."   

F. Scott Fitzgerald

    "Think in the morning. Act in the noon.

Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night."

 William Blake

"I'm gonna be a morning guy

just you wait and see.

My feet will hit the floor each day at 5:30

Then I'll seize the day 

and I'll be sound asleep by ten.

I'm gonna be a morning guy,

but I just don't know when."  

J. Green

"Believe.  
No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted island, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit."

                                                                    - Helen Keller

"If heaven is a place I am there.  

If heaven is a state of mind I am there.  
It's all a journey and it's all a place. 
The distance of your journey is measured 
by the priority of your destination."

                                                                          

          from Jeemer's Dream, Joe Green, 1982

Take the first step in faith.
You don't have to see the whole staircase,
just take the first step.          
Martin Luther King Jr. 

"There's plans to make and dreams to keep.

Alive and not just in your sleep.

You know it's true without a doubt,

So why not just go all out.

And take a chance, go on faith.

Don't look back or hesitate.

You owe it to yourself to be

The master of your destiny.

Somebody's gotta do it.

And it might as well be you."

(j. green)

 "He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.” 
― Aristotle

"You could get hit by the boom and die.

You could fall overboard and die.

You could capsize and die.

Or you could stay at home 

and fall off the couch and die."

Anonymous

  

"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."            A. A. Milne - Winnie The Pooh

"The days pass happily with me wherever my ship sails."

Joshua Slocum - from Sailing Alone Around The World

"A sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind."

Webb Chiles

"The plans of a sailor are written in the sand at low tide."

- anonymous

"Let the beauty of what you love be what you do."

Rumi

 

"Respond to every call that excites your spirit."

Rumi

"Chesapeake Bay is like a beautiful woman.  There's no humiliation from which she cannot recover."

- James Michener, Chesapeake 

"If you live a life of make-believe, your life isn't worth anything until you do something that will challenge your reality. And to me, sailing the open ocean is a real challenge, because it's life or death."        Morgan Freeman

Listed below in chronological order are direct links to all the  previous posts made on the blog known as www.sailingvesselglorydays.blogspot 

Timeline is April 2012 - June 2017 in chronological order

What a wild ride it has been!

A Collection of My Music Video Archives HERE

ALL PAST BLOG ENTRIES POSTED BELOW:

2013

#1 The Hunt Ends

#2 One Pearson 33 - Check!

#3 The Dixon Man Cometh!

#4 Elvis Lives!

#5 First Solo Outing

#6 Cumberland Island With Ryan

#7 The Ocean Breathes

#8 Fort Frederica and Hampton River Trip

#9 Pondering

#10  Sailing The Outside To Fernandina

#11  A Woody Kind of Week

#12  Marina Life

#13  A Jekyll Island Scenario

#14  World's Greatest Feature Film Ever!

#15  Somebody's Gotta Do It

#16  Amy Get's Her Sea Legs

#17  Submarines and Jellyfish

#18  8 Days On the Hard at Tiger Point

#19  A Mooring Ball Debacle

#20  My Brother And The Doors Of St. Marys

#21  Just For Now

#22  FREEDOM

#23  A Cool Night In July

#24  Captions

#25  Another Dose Of Cumberland

#26  Two Men One Mission

#27  Sometimes You Gotta Buy Your Own Flowers

#28  Ponce De Leon's Trail

#29  Heading Back North With Jesse

#30  Blues By The Sea

#31  Independence On 33 Feet

#32  All This Senseless Beauty

#33  Perfect Day Sail With The Malcom-mater

#34  Morning Has Broken

#35  Home Improvements!

#36  October Glory!

#37  Getting' Closer

#38  Partying With Pelicans 

2014

#39  UNDERWAY!!!

#39  Scenes Along The ICW (With Dixon)

#40  Fort Lauderdale!!

#41  Drive Bys

#42  Atlantic Day Sail

#43  Lobster, Lion Fish, and Little Known Secrets

#44  So Long Fort Lauderdale

#45  Hello Miami and Beyond!

#46  A Charming Harbor With No Name

# 47  A Sunday In South Beach

#48  A Bohemian In Biscayne Bay

#49  BAHAMAS FINALLY!!

#50  Island Magic With Amy

#51  The Black Point Settlement

#52  Digging Deeper

#53  In Zach's Words

#54  Welcome to Georgetown

#55  All Points Are North Now

#56  It's The People

#57  A Sleeping Tiger

#58  Hope

#59  Suddenly ...

#60  Exit Through The Abacos

#61  The Crossing!

#62  Back in the USSA!

#63  Magical Waterway

#64  New Thoughts In A Very Old Town - St. Augustine

#65  Beyond Your Wildest Dreams

#66  What Is Cruising?

#67  My Groovy Movie

#68  Glory Days Returns!


2015

#69  On The Cusp Of A Dream

#70  Birds And Space Rockets

#71  Drawn To The Rhythm Of The Sea

#72  South Florida Charm

#73  Keys To The Highways

#74  A Rude Interruption

#75  Mind, Body, And Marathon

#76  A Woman On An Adventure Quest

#77  People of Key West 1

#78  Sailing The Keys In 5 Minutes - Video

#79  Wrapping Up Thee Keys

#80  Sitting On Sand - Video

#81  A Day In The Life

#82  Coming Home - Part 1

#83  Sailing Back Home - The Video

#84  Coming Home - Conclusion

#85  My Old Friend - Cumberland Island


2016


#86  January 30, 2016 - Sunsets and Chemtrails

#87  St. Simon Says

#88  88 Miles To Heaven

#89  Sailing To Savannah - A New Beginning!

#90  Onward To Charleston!

#91  Next Move. Forward

#92  Sailing With Jay!

#93  From Waccamaw To Cape Fear

#94  Carolina On My Mind

#95  The Great Dismal Swamp To Norfolk

#96  Chesapeake Bay Believer - Part 1 of 5

#97  Conversation With A Boat

#98  The Chesapeake Charm - Part 2 of 5

#99  The Chesapeake Charm - ANNAPOLIS! Part 3 of 5


2017



#100  The Chesapeake Charm - EERIE ENCOUNTERS! Part 4 of 5

#101  The Chesapeake Charm - THE PLANS OF A SAILOR - Part 5 of 5

#102  You've Done It Again God

#103  Of Sailboats, LOVE, and Subtle Changes

#104  AMAZING ANNAPOLIS AGAIN! Deja Vu!



That's it for the Glory Days Blog!
More adventures to follow once I locate  the next great boat!!  
The search is on. 
Namaste.

"My art is a way of living.
Photographing extensively.
journeying intimately
decorating eclectically
entertaining flamboyantly
Communicating courageously
Teaching passionately
Working playfully
Playing seriously
Loving outrageously"

2001 Dana S. Kemp