Winter's Work

摘要

Several years ago, I visited a semi-tropical town in the Southern hemisphere with a deep local sailing culture. The sailing season there is year-round, and the place was populated by some impressively adept sailors-some of Olympic caliber-sailing a fleet of equally impressively run-down boats. It was roundly acknowledged there that, since the boats were used year-round, they didn't receive a particularly consistent level of care from season to season. The boats were always in use, and thus seldom, if ever, taken out of commission for overhaul. Here in the northeastern United States, the decision to haul out is forced upon us annually by cold, dark winters.