Slocum at Sea with Himself

Directed by Paul Fierlinger

I was a self-taught sailor of marginal skills when I did something I had never attempted before: I was solo sailing our 30 foot Islander into her home port and had noticed that there was no one in sight. I therefore decided to sail her directly into her slip without engine or crew. I turned her about to head directly into the on-shore breeze, locked the wheel, dropped both sails as she lost speed on due course, and casually, letting her first just kiss the slip, I stepped off her deck to cleat her home … done.