A Brief History…

Two weeks ago, the world lost one of the nice guys. Davey was a great shipmate and competent sailor who was comfortable only on the ocean. In this photo, he is in the foreground to the left. Next to him is Byron, who in those days was my boat skipper and delivery captain. We had finished the Transpac a few hours before. Behind Davey to his right is a friend of Byron’s whose name I no longer recall. In the middle is sailmaker Steve Dair who sailed the race with us. Behind Byron, wearing a straw hat, is Carol who flew to Hawaii to surprise Davey.

Here is another photo, taken not long before the first but after substantial champagne had been consumed. Byron, to the left, in his white shirt and with his lei around his neck, has obviously had his share. In the center is my then-wife Jill with her arm around Davey. Davey looks as he always did, happy, friendly and competent.

I lost track of Davey for 25 years until I saw his name on the crew of my friend Timm Lessley’s family Cal 40 in the 2005 Transpac. Davey was still sailing and working on boats. He had spent a lot of time with Timm, his wife Victoria and Timm’s parents and, aside from them, life had not been too kind to Davey. He had spent the intervening years working on boats, sailing when he could and drinking a little too much. I had a new boat and, when Davey had some time, he came down and did some work for me. He was still the same guy, competent and trustworthy. He even looked the same except for a couple of teeth that were missing in front. He was most at home on the ocean and the shore had not treated him well. Those of us who knew him, did what we could to keep him busy and doing as much sailing as possible. It was about all we could do. A couple of weeks ago, it just wasn’t enough and Davey left us. I am sure he had no idea how many friends he had and how much we liked and respected him.

His sister has written us that she will always see him as a dolphin still enjoying the ocean and at home. His friends will sprinkle some of his ashes at the finish line of Transpac next time the race is run. I have already told my children that is where I want my ashes someday, so maybe Davey and I will meet again.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 11:47 am and is filed under sailing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.