In those early days hard cold steel and brass protected the men and their ships. Today we have boat insurance, GPS systems, sonar and underwater charts.

While boat insurance is not as glamorous as a fancy cutlass nor as exciting as a cannon it does offer the boat owner something that all the cutlasses and cannons cannot. It can replace your ship if you lose it. In the wild and wooly days of wooden ships and iron men you usually needed one ship to steal another.

Why not just sail away or blast somebody to flinders if they are trying to steal your boat?

I must make a confession; I make a terrible sailor. I am one of those people that Dramamine was invented for. I get seasick watching a pirate movie or riding a Washington State Ferry, that is hardly a rough ride at sea.

It is usually as steady as a stroll in the park. When my family goes for a good time on the water I am waving merrily from the shore. Why an I happy? I know that my family will be safe; they use life vests, weather radio and GPS and have boat insurance.

I on the other hand will not be `feeding the fishes` and watching the roll of the horizon waiting for the next `heave ho`.

As a young man I was fascinated by everything related to the sea. Vikings and their ocean riding serpents, pirates and their magnificent galleons, the US Navy and their valiant ships of steel were all fodder for my young imagination.

I loved to dream about the time of cannons and cold steel when men were men and lived by the code of the sea. Now we have the GPS, sonar and boat insurance. Still I make a lousy sailor.