The Shore Was Never the Point In late spring of 2007, just before I moved away from Florida, I made one final boat trip...
Primer
Primer is a combination of lessons learned, rules to live by, narrative on key moments of history and how that shapes who we are, and more generally, practical advice based on Switch’s experience of going above and beyond, and making the most of the life you have been given. One of the purposes of The Royal Texan is to remind us that the old fashioned ways of conducting oneself is not an antiquated approach to life. Much can be learned from the paths of those who tread them before us.
Mind your Wake The first warning is usually the sound of the mooring lines. We’ve all seen it many times. A boat passes through...
The Wisdom of Weighing Anchor An anchor can save a vessel. Left down too long, it can also prevent the voyage. A good anchorage...
The Wisdom of Holding Ground An anchor is a promise made to the bottom. It is easy to think of an anchor as a...
The Wisdom of Soundings One of my favorite childhood authors, Samuel Clemens, took the pen name Mark Twain from an old Mississippi river call:...
The Wisdom of Changing Course At sea, you learn quickly that a course is a commitment, not a prison. You set out with intention....
The Wisdom of Keeping Watch At sea, someone must always be paying attention. That sounds simple enough from land. Indeed, it’s almost too simple...
The Discipline of Making Harbor At sea, there comes a point when the wise decision is not to press farther, but to make harbor. ...
The Wisdom of Shortening Sail The summer I was seventeen, I needed to get out of the Texas Panhandle for a while. That country...
Hold Your Line The temptation, when the boat begins to heel, is to do too much. A gust comes across the water. The sail...