Me and Jimmy Carter

Yeah, OK, give me a minute and I'll relate this to the sea. Honest.

That's me in the background, in a previous life. (Note to self: Blog is getting a little too self-absorbed.)

I'm not a fan of Jimmy. Supposedly, in the Navy, he was a nuclear engineer, or studied to be such. As President, he left a lot to be desired.

Debacle in Iran.

Failed energy policy. (We can thank Jimmy for the windfall tax on U.S. energy companies, and, as a result, a greater dependence on foreign oil.)

Trying to buddy up to to terrorists, in particular, Yasser Arafat. The man made a hero of Yasser Arafat.

But, there I am. And there's Jimmy.

Thing is, I can tell you with all honesty that when this picture was taken, I would have rather been fishing. In fact, at the time, I was living in a motel on Singer Island in Florida, advertised as the home of the fourth largest charter fishing fleet in the world. (Montauk is first. Somewhere in Australia is second, Somewhere in Hawaii is third. Singer Island, Florida is fourth -- or so it was at the time. That time being when Jimmy was President.)

The boats on Singer Island were just absolutely gorgeous, 42' to 60' Palm Beach built Rybo's, Buddy Davis' and more.

I went to the Rybovich yard when I was down there, got a tour of a brand new 60 footer. Took my shoes off and walked through the boat in my socks.

All the appliances in the galley were on pneumatic lifts; out of sight when not in use, or push a button to pop them up when needed. Gold leaf trim. Heli-pad on the flybridge hardtop. 2000 gallons of aviation fuel. Wow!

But getting back to Jimmy. He seemed like a really nice man. Nice smile. Friendly. Unpretentious. I escorted him to the bathroom and back again, shook his hand too, before he went. That's a secret service button on my lapel, gives me access to the president so I can watch him pee if I want.

Truth be told, I would have Jimmy as a boat mate. He seemed like a really easy going guy.

But Jeeze-Louise . . . President???? What were we thinking?

-seabgb