The right place at the right time, as luck would have it.

Economist, Robert Frank, from Cornell, recently published a book about the role of luck in achieving success suggesting that those who do well owe a larger amount of their success to luck than they might think or be willing to admit.  An article about his book was published on Bloomberg.com yesterday.  Successful?Was it luck you or are you just smarter than everyone else?  It’s short and you might find it interesting.  Click here…

Personally, I have wondered many times how important luck is to how things turned out for me as I stumbled my way along over the years.  What might have happened if I had been born into another family or continued to hang out with that bad guy who lived next door when I was in my early teens.  No, don’t ask me about that.  I won’t tell anyway as it was a long time ago.

A retired friend of mine does loads of traveling and I once asked him how he managed to retire young and do so well in spite of a relatively modest background.  His answer was “I chose my parents wisely”.  Ok, got it, luck again… Perhaps Frank is on to something…

“Bob, what in the #$*& are you talking about?”

Ok, to the point…  When Brenda and I were visiting Sag Harbor the other day aboard Pandora,  we visited briefly with friends who were there aboard their Nonsuch 30 cat rigged sailboat.   Before going ashore that morning Brenda and I took our dink over to say Hi and saw that there was a launch (when dinks grow up they are called launches) alongside with two guys aboard.  It turned out that they were the captain and engineer aboard a 130′ motor yacht.

Brenda and I enjoyed talking to them and after a while I mentioned, in my always shy and retiring way, that I’d love to crew for them, unpaid of course, if they needed an extra set of hands when making a passage.

The captain, amazingly said, and I paraphrase here but you’ll get the gist of it,  “How about making the run with us to Florida next week?”   “Well, sure”, I said, after making a quick glance toward Brenda to see if I was going to get in trouble.  (I wasn’t.  Whew!)   So, that’s it.  I rendezvous with them next Wednesday and head out for Ft Lauderdale.

The captain’s name is Mark.  I’ll call him Captain Mark.  (It would have been fun if his name was Ron, wouldn’t it?)   You know, the cult classic Captain Ron?  In keeping with my love of random stuff in blog posts, here’s the trailer for that flick.Anyway, I asked Captain Mark what I should bring and he said simply, “a foul weather jacket and a good appetite”.   He added that they have an awesome chef on board.  Count me in!  I can do dishes!

Based on what I’ve learned so far I expect that the run won’t be even a little bit like a trip with the “real” Captain Ron.  However, we are timing our departure to dodge Hurricane Hermaine who’s headed up the coast over the weekend. Happily, Captain Mark uses a weather router so details to come.

The boat was built in 2003 and she’s a beauty, all 130′ of her.  As she’s private and not in charter, there isn’t much on the Web about her.   I did find this photo though.  Nice ride.   Notice that there isn’t a name on the boat as it’s a top secret and if I tell you I’d have to kill you.  Besides, I am way to busy to take the time to track down and kill all four of you that read my blog. It will be interesting to see how voyaging aboard a yacht of this scale compares to Pandora.  Yes, the food will likely be better.  And, I am pretty confident that it will not be at all like spending time aboard with anyone wearing an eye patch.

As they often say, right place, right time.  Lucky break for me.  Indeed.   I get to go on a boat ride and yes Captain Mark, put me to work and no, I won’t forget to my appetite.  I promise.

Like you, I am wondering how their biscuits compare to Pandora’s?

Details to come.