Things fail, crack, break, and rot on even great boats but jeez is it hard to avoid a grandiose attitude about your own boat. When I started reading sea stories and watching sailing videos, I had this voice in my mind that went something like, “Oh yeah, but that probably won’t happen to me” or “Yeah, but that could probably have been prevented” or “I’ll have this better boat where things like that won’t happen” and then, “well, once I get everything fixed then things like this won’t happen anymore.” Exceptionalism is as American as apple pie but it really didn’t serve me well to hang on to the idea…