Boat Bum

This is not a story about someone who grew up around boats and made a miraculous voyage across open oceans. (Think Maiden Voyage by Tania Aebie, Ballentine 1991.) Actually this is a story about an older burned out, Hollywood cab driver with no experience who didnt get into boating till he was forty five. This is the story of a dream realized and the learning experience it became.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Gore Lyle. I'm a six-foot-two-inch, two-hundred-pound (of mostly muscle) ex-Green Beret, ex-cop, undercover SPUTF (Special Police Undercover Terrorism Force) agent. I also am independently wealthy thanks to a mob chief. Did I mention the mob would probably like to take me out? I say probably because I don't talk to them about that subject. When I interact with the mob, it usually involves a gun and little talk. This all sounds cut-and-dried, but life is never cut-and-dried. I always carry bad memories of Green Beret missions that went wrong where a lot of killing was involved. I was a different brutal person back then. Then, I found God. However, that old Gore is always there in the background like a bad dream. And yet, working in a dangerous occupation, that bad Gore comes in handy, at times, but must be kept in check most of the time. Only crying out to God and my weird sense of humor helps. What a quandary, for a Christian-You can only cover so much up with humor. Welcome to my life.

Five tales of romance and boats collected together on a voyage of love, travel, and adventure in a world afloat. · Solo Crossing - sailing away from it all can chart a fresh course through the past · Return Passage - setting a course for home leads to a new future · Narrowboat Goddess - love on the English canals · Carved from Sand - when sand sculpture and sailboat racing collide · Santa and the Pirate Queen - true love at Christmas only needs a pirate ship Pull on your sou’wester and snuggle down for a good ride.