Thoughts From My First Summer of Boat Ownership
featuring an existential crisis about how it's almost fall.
Hi Substackers,
Is it just me, or is summer flying by at an absolutely relentless pace? It’s about that time of year where I’m confronted by the annual onset of mid-summer anxiety. In fact, I started typing this three weeks ago, so now it’s late-summer anxiety. Gah. True to form, this is presenting as the overwhelming feeling that I am not doing enough of [insert outdoor activity]. I’m not hiking enough, not biking enough, haven’t seen enough sunsets, haven’t taken enough photos, haven’t spent enough time sleeping in the mountains, haven’t swam in enough lakes, rivers, or the ocean, and definitely haven’t posted enough on Instagram.
I probably have, however, drunk an ample amount of cold beers, and spent a good chunk of my time laughing with close friends - something that I struggled to find time to do much of last year. Disconnecting from my work has always been hard - but this year I’ve spent many a Friday evening out of service, with friends, phone stuffed in my bag - and no camera in sight. Turning fully ‘off’ on the weekend has been a blessing and a curse, but I think I’m going to stick with it for now.
Right now, I’m sitting on a huge body of work that feels overwhelming to even start trying to curate into something meaningful, as opposed to rushing to feed the IG machine. I’m also trying to launch a new website, film photography guide, print store, stay sane and shoot three more campaigns before summer’s end. It’s feels like a lot when for the most part, I am a one woman show.
The main reason for my lack of time and resources this year has been the new addition to our family. It’s expensive, high maintenance and looks pretty good when wet. This year I fulfilled a lifelong dream, and I bought a boat. At a small but mighty 17ft, she’s a Hourston Glascraft - a solid deep v hull that is renowned for its performance in our west coast conditions. At least, that’s the phrase that I have burned into my brain from hours and hours of research on fishing forums that look like they were build in 2003. I haven’t named it yet, and I’ve got a lot of upgrades to do over the next few weeks that I’ve been putting off. Summer so far has been focused on learning how to drive the dang thing and not kill everyone on board.
A boat manoeuvres nothing like a car. The pavement doesn’t usually move around whilst you’re driving on it, you don’t usually drive cars without brakes on, and you definitely don’t usually slam the engine into reverse when you’re going forward. And unless you’re really unlucky, when sh*t hits the fan, you can just pull over - and not have to worry about plummeting to the bottom of the ocean. This all took a while to learn, as for better or worse, the only way to get better is to get out there and practice. Boating in glassy conditions with unlimited visibility can breed false confidence, and is quite different to navigating through the fog, in three foot swell, against 20mph winds.
But I love the challenge. I feel like unless I keep learning new things, I get stupider as I get older. Boating offers so much (sometimes a little too much) opportunity for problem solving - and I’m addicted. The ocean is a pretty intimidating thing to learn about. There’s tides, currents, wind, confusing navigational aids, marine wildlife the size of train carriages, rocks to avoid, driftwood barges that come out of nowhere - and of course, other boats. There’s a lot going on. I’ve come to realize that being out on the ocean is the best thing in the world, until something goes seriously wrong, and then suddenly it is the worst thing in the world - as the occupants on my first ocean outing will attest.
Fishing is a whole other thing, a melting pot of superstition, storytelling, and some skill. Fisherman spend hours obsessing over gear combinations, predicting fish behaviour, and analyzing speeds, depths and distance. This is usually in a vain attempt to make peace with that fact that the boat over yonder caught fish all day, and they got skunked. And now, I am one of these obsessive fish nerds. I spend my Friday nights catching up on my local fishing forums, who used what tackle where, getting excited for the weekend. When Monday morning comes, I’m checking back - either with smug satisfaction from my weekend bounty, or just to torture myself with what my catch could have been.
Catching fish is fun, for sure. But learning about fish behaviour, how they move, eat, feel, smell - it’s all so interesting. I love the comradery that being on the boat fosters. Relationship dynamics are put to the test when you’re bringing a fish in, and the shared joy (or anguish) depending on whether or not you land it brings people together. I’ve also had some amazing (and sometimes extremely enlightening) conversations down on the dock. Not just about boat launches and conditions, but about boat-accessed beaches, cabins, trails, and waterfalls. ‘Boat’ people have been so open about sharing their spots with other like minded people, and it’s a sense of community I’ve been craving deeply.
That’s all for today, just an update on why things have been quiet over here, and admitting to myself that I now operate under the ‘fisherman’s mindset’ - the complete and utter delusion that at any given point I could catch the fish of a lifetime.
Stay tuned for more soon,
Lovely article and photos…looks like you may have a similar problem to me when I had a Hasselblad, in that it looks like the seals are letting light in to the film back, they are easily replaceable
Great photos. How do you scan them? 🙏🏽