messing about in boat

[jthatcher]

A long time ago I had a subscription to Messing About in Boats.   I enjoyed the stories, but i allowed the subscription to expire and never got around to renewing it.   Fast forward to this morning.   I opened up my mailbox in the faculty room and lo and behold, there was a copy of Messing About in Boats, addressed to me!  ( did i mail in a subscription???  perhaps with all the excitement of the near flood i did and forgot about it??   no matter - the bottom line is that I had a copy in my hands)   On the way home I noticed that one of the articles was entitled "Dramatic Rescues on Barnegat Bay" written by some bob guy...     Having recently adopted the bay as my home waters, this article grabbed my attention! 

I made a cup of tea and then sat on the sofa and began to read the gripping story of a party who set out on a sail in a.. wait a minute..  a compac 19?   what a coincidence!   As the story unfolded,  the scene became increasingly more familiar..  Tice's Shoals..  Berkley Island Park..  this is all just around the point from our home marina...  and the writing.. something about the style that seems awfully familiar..    who was the author??  bob??  do i happen to know this guy??   of course I do...  but i thought his last name was 23..  come to think of it,  his phone number is in my phone, and we sat together and gabbed in Adagio's cabin, but i never thought to ask him his last name..   as far as i knew ,  he was just Bob23.   And now, in addition to rubbing shoulders with an accomplished compac 23 sailor, known throughout the world through his recent you tube video,  I find that he is also a published author as well!!    way to go, Bob.   I will be looking forward to reading more of your stories in future copies of Messing About in Boats..   that is, if i happen to get the mailing -  I am still trying to figure out how i got this one!   jt

[Bob23]

Well, JT:
   I dunno how you got that magazine but, yes, I confess the bob you mention and yours truly are one and the same! 'Tis also true that while I've achieved the status as a world famous youtube star, I'm now enjoy the status as a famous author as well. It's getting harder to mingle with common folks...but I'll give it a try.
   That must be the October issue because I have the September issue here and the story does not appear in it. I've been getting MAIB for years...have many old issues lurking about my office. I love the grassroots, I-varnish-my-teak-myself approach. I call MAIB- reading for adults bacause there are no glossy color photos to distract from the articles. I've learned alot from that magazine over the years. In the past, I subscribed to 4 boat mags...had to trim things down a bit but nixing MAIB was never an option.
   The brave editor, Bob Hicks, has been kind enough to publish a number of my stories over the years, copies of which may be had for a tidy sum. I really enjoy the writing but I admit, I have to wait for the moment of inspiration. I then do battle with my demon of procrastination...and then, possibly, s story appears.
   Truth be told, a slightly different version of "Rescues" first appeared here at this very site, but then I made a few changes and after a few years of not getting around to it, finally sent it in.
   Careful, JT: start hanging around with me and you will appears on those pages!
Bob23 

[Salty19]

Bob23,  I mean Mr. Bob23,  what can I say..first a movie start and now an author!?!? You're starting to make us think you
aren't a curmudgeon afterall!  Nice article, I can't wait to read the next one.  You know this is going to get Koinonia in a tizzy.
Hint, hint.

[Bob23]

   That would be Sir Bob23, His Most Curmudgeoness!
   The next story is about a novice sailor who aspires to be an ocean crosser but spends way too much time on his favorite sailing forum. Unfortunately for him, by the time he realizes he has a problem, his fingers have permanently fused to his keyboard and he spends the rest of his days tacking endlessly though the cyber-sea while his jealous 23 foot sailboat elopes with a former cigarette boat skipper. Fiction, of course.
   Glad you liked the tale...
Bob23