LOVE WHAT YOU DO....... "Steve Jobs"

After a delightful week hanging on a mooring in Avalon, I'm back on the "firing line" of my little store. October is always a great month for us. Instead of getting the back to school slump and decline in business, we get the annual parade of cruisers waiting out the hurricane season as they head south to Mexico and beyond. Yesterday was a totally fun and interesting day. One lively couple from Marina del Rey was doing their final outfitting of "Ima Loa", Doc Sterns 40' catamaran which they purchased and have completely re-conditioned. Soon they will be anchored in an idyllic cove in Baja sipping rum punches. Another customer had a bit of a sad tale. He rolled in with a pick-up truck full of "pure gold". I noted that the stainless port lights appeared new but had signs of bedding compound on the flanges. He stated that he had to dismantle his dream boat and scrap the hull. He didn't really want to talk about it, but I knew I was dealing with a wounded mariner. The $1500.00 check I gave him cheered him up a bit. More than the money, he appeared somewhat happy that his hardware and electronics would end up on other adventurer's boats and help them to full fill their dreams. During all of this I was trying to measure spinnakers in a brisk afternoon westerly. As I left for lunch I loaded my truck with the crews of 3 "Baja Ha-Ha" boats and delivered them back to "Viking's Port", our little staging area on Mariner's mile where cruisers can tie up their rubber boats and hoof it up to the store. After lunch, a family from Vancouver dropped in looking for a big mainsail. Sixty feet by twenty two. They are sailing aboard their 60' cutter to Panama and then on the Belieze where they are going to establish a boat yard. We pulled 3 sails from our computer list that didn't fill the bill. Then we dove in to the huge stack I was working on. The cruising family was totally into the program. With pop on one end of the measuring tape and his good looking son on the other, I read the measuring tape and wrote out the specs. We looked at some great sails, but they were all a bit on the small size. If any of you have a 60' luff by 22' foot- ten or twelve oz. dacron main you would like to sell, give the store a ring. The sails I was showing this family were all priced at $1000.00 or less. The rains are gone, I've got 500 sails to measure. Anyone want to help??? Pictured is the NEW EDITION of chart guide from San Diego to Panama. This is a great buy. $500.00 worth of charts for $99.00. Also are the USCG Navigation Rules. All boats of any size are required to have this book aboard. If you get boarded and do not have this book aboard, YOU WILL BE CITED BY THE U.S. COAST GUARD.....