I met him on the Inter Coastal Waterway one morning as we were getting ready to depart the public dock at Great Bridge. He was single-handed, sailing an older Allied sloop that was clean but with deck and topsides in tough shape. A rusty beach cruiser was tied to the mast with little else on deck. He said he had bought the boat 2 months before in Annapolis and was heading to Florida for the winter to fix her up. “She’s going to get new sails and fresh paint. I think the whole project will take me a couple of years”. He was fit and quick on his feed for his advancing age. My guess is that he was in his sixties. We talked briefly about the day’s plan as he readied his boat to leave the seawall. At one point he had removed his fenders but realized that he was not ready to untie. The boat swung back toward the rough concrete. He hesitated for a moment saying “oh hell I’m just going to paint it anyway”. Then he changed his mind and stuffed a fender between the side of the boat and the wall. “Guess I should practice taking care of my topsides. Can’t be bumping once she is painted”. He said he was headed for Elizabeth City, a day’s travel down the ICW. He thought he would spend a couple of weeks there. I told him he was ambitious. That single-handing must not be easy. With that he gave me the best advice I have heard in a long time. “You got to live. If you’re not going to live now when you think you’re going to? You’ve got to live” he repeated. I walked back to Alembic with those words rolling through my thoughts. Great advice from an old sailor.