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Details at http://www.silverheels.us . She’ll be on YachtWorld by tomorrow (and no doubt sold by Monday).
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Gordon Lightfoot named my boat for me. Dan. He’s the Canadian folk singer most famous for his ballad, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” but he also wrote & recorded a lesser-known song titled “Christian Island,” a tune that has been with me since my early sailing days. In it he sings:
Tall and strong she dips and reels
I call her Silverheels
And she tells me how she feels
Sheâs a good old boat and sheâll stay afloat
Through the toughest gale and keep smilinâ
But for one more day she would like to stay
In the lee of Christian IslandI imagine “Silverheels” refers to the sparkling trail left by a boat moving through bioluminescent water at night, or maybe to the play of moonlight on a ship’s wake at sea. I just always liked the feel of that song. It begins,
I’m sailing down the summer wind
I got whiskers on my chin
And I like the mood I’m in…Even though I hadn’t heard the tune for many years, the first time I saw this boat (who didn’t have a proper name; probably never did), something clicked in my mind and I just thought, “Silverheels!” Later I learned that the (real life) native American actor who played The Lone Ranger’s Indian sidekick, Tonto, in the old television series was named Jay Silverheels. He was a pretty cool character in the show, and a rugged, self-made man in real life. He might’ve inspired my boat’s name if Lightfoot hadn’t beat him to it.
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The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is close to home. I went to undergrad school at Northern Michigan U in Marquette on Lake Superior. The E.F. went down my last year there.Don’t know if you’ve heard the old saying: “Lake Superior never gives up her dead”. That’s because the water’s so cold that flotation gases never form in the body.Good luck selling Silverheels!
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I dunno’, Alan. Buy an old boat and fix it up, maybe?
Just kidding. I’ve got a bucket list as long as my wake, and a little less time to do it all than there used to be. A small RV for more mountain forest time in the Northwest, for sure. Maybe find a rough-&-ready retired fishing trawler to buy up around Seattle and chug it up to Alaska via the inside passage for a couple of summers, and/or/then a canal boat for an inside look at Europe and the British Isles. That’s another couple of summers, easy. In between, some light-pack trekking to new, exotic places all over the planet and, who knows, maybe a funky outrigger to cruise around Micronesia for a while.
I still love Silverheels, but I’m totally Caribbeaned out. It just ain’t what it used to be, or else I ain’t. I’ve run out of places to take this good old ketch that aren’t 10,000 miles away.
Silverheels is everything I say she is on the listing web page, and then some. Tell all your wanna-be friends! Their clocks are ticking, too.
Tor
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Many grand new adventures, I hope! When I bought Silverheels I said she was, and prepared her to be, a 10-year dream boat for me, my longest ever. Honest to Neptune, Bob, she has been everything I’d hoped and a lot more.
Now, for another month or so, she’s sitting just an overnight sail from the gateway to the South Pacific, aching for some adventurous soul to take her out there! But it ain’t me, babe. My bucket list overfloweth and I’m chompin’ to get on with it.
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Tor: I figured something was going on. I have missed your experience and plethora of comments from the McGiver of 424’s. Some of us have been rebuilding our boats one part at a time using the guidance from you guys who have already done it. I wish you well in your next voyage.When I saw the picture in your Cruising World article last month I immediately said “I’ve been there, I slept under that boat one night.” I was wrong though. It looked like a place in Bequia.Best to you.CharlieOneEighty #54
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It was in the February 2017 Cruising World. It was a great article (short and to-the-point) that reminded me of the way I remember the Windwards. I’ve been afraid that they would have changed too much over the years like the BVI. Though I remember some things about Carriacou, I seem to recall the traditional boatbuilding in Bequia. Some of my favorite memories were in small and little known Palm Island, though more with the people than the island itself. It’s been 30+ years since I cruised the Windwards so I’ve enjoyed following your adventure.CharlieOneEighty #54Attachments:
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Hi Joe,
I haven’t posted it on YachtWorld yet. Hopefully before this day is done. Anyway, the full specs & some photos (I’ll be adding more) are already online at http://www.silverheels.us .
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Thanks, Charlie. Now I need to figure out how to get a copy of that to Nero. He’ll be tickled.
I first sailed down there in the late 70’s, and have returned many times since, most recently this past summer. Palm Island, being private, doesn’t change much, but most of the other islands have changed a lot. C’est la vie.
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The Pearson 424, Silverheels, was for sale briefly last spring. But I needed her to live aboard a while longer, so I took her off the market. She’s still off, but is likely to be for sale again by around Christmas. Full specs & more at http://www.silverheels.us
Tor
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Captain Tor Pinney
http://www.silverheels.us
admiral@silverheels.us
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