My favorite sport, as a yout', was to load up the little boat shown in the "Album" photos and go off on camping/fishing trips along the islands and keys on the W. coast of Florida and Tampa Bay. It was a lot like backpacking, except you could haul a lot more stuff. You could carry about as much gear as you could in an automobile, and although you couldn't sleep on the boat, you could carry all the food, water and tents you needed. The boat could take anywhere from 1 to 4 people, and the necessary gear to survive comfortably on the Mosquito Coast. This is a very harsh environment if you're not prepared for it. One of the earliest skills you needed to master was how to pitch a bug-proof tent on beach sand so it could survive a thunderstorm (we get about 100 a year in that part of the world). Depending on where I was going and the weather, it was not uncommon to sail all night just to get there.

My navigational equipment was a steering compass, bearing compass, nautical chart, parallel rulers, dividers, and a pair of binoculars. It was all sailing, too. I didn't own a kicker.