Shipmate: A Love Story

I am now of an age where the past is wondrously long and the future fearfully short. Regardless, I just went into the galley of Ganesh on my 65th year of living aboard. I put the kettle on our Force Ten stove. I switched on the solenoid, twisted the burner knob, and lit the propane. 

…while thinking of all the stuff that we’ve gained and lost as cruising sailors. 

My core memory of growing up aboard in the chilly, windy Great Lakes, is of the cheery red glow of our cast-iron, coal-fired Shipmate stove in the 1950s.