New Bern, NC
Rich owners of megayachts are familiar with the problem. No matter how rich you are,and no matter how much you spend on your yacht to outdo the Jones, there will always be someone else who builds a bigger boat.
Now, for cruisers (like us) who like to brag about how frugal we are and how much we simplified our life style, there's a new story to outdo us all. It is the story of a man who lives on a 14 foot canoe in Boston Harbor. He even patches holes in his hull with duct tape. Man, he's got us beat.
I call on all fellow cruisers to tip their hats to Mister Smith.
Read the delightful story here. A couple of quotes follow.
With his possessions packed in a 14-foot canoe, the wiry, mustachioed man paddles to small offshore docks after dark to pitch his tent and sleep. He wears his brown locks long and tucks a pink silk rose into the brim of his canvas explorer hat.
The 49-year-old's salty lifestyle is a means of survival, but Smith detests the word "homeless" and describes himself as just another "fellow citizen."
When necessary, the Maine native uses duct tape to patch his 40-year-old aluminum canoe. Smith said he feels most secure when he sleeps in the harbor and lists his biggest worries as the wakes of fast ferries and drunken boaters.
Smith plans to sleep out in Boston Harbor all winter and prefers to concentrate on the beauty of his surroundings rather than the bareness of his accommodations.Before sunup Tuesday, Smith saw a shooting star skitter across the New England sky and said later he made a wish meant for all people, no matter where they bed down at night.
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A few years ago, I was motoring to my mooring ball in Westport on Lake Champlain when I overtook a guy motoring in a heavily loaded canoe, He only had a few inches of freeboard. As I passed him, I waved and he waved back. I asked him where he was headed. He said Key West.
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