Born, raised, and lived most of my life in Oregon until retirement in San Diego area (Lake Hodges). Sailed a bit on smaller boats (up to 27’ Santana) in the late '80s and early '90s. Built a small Wittholz catboat with my friend in mid-‘90s and we still own and trade it back and forth. Sailed on a sail-training schooner in Puget Sound and eventually became volunteer crewmember, but never in charge. But Oregon is not good sailing country so most of my boating has been in small boats or power boats. I have rowed over 17,000 miles in rowing shells and uncountable miles in canoes and kayaks. I only agreed to retire in SoCal if we could buy a boat to use in the bay and ocean. At first we were looking at power boats because that’s where my experience lies. But down here there’s only two things to do with power boats: go fishing or sit at the dock and get drunk. They have no salmon down here and we drink very little (and wouldn’t need a boat to get drunk if we were so inclined) so a power boat was unappealing. You can SAIL in the bay and in the ocean and so we bought a sailboat. We looked at larger ones and tried very hard to buy a 44’ Nauticat schooner, but could not make a deal on it. When our broker persuaded us to look at a Nonsuch 33 we did so and were sold. What a great boat for an older couple who are not looking to cruise the high seas. And so here I am.