Metaphor of the Day

I came across this today in Sailing Just for Fun by AC Stock and it made me smile:

How I sympathise with those chaps who sail about with a private lead mine slung several feet under their craft and cannot reach places such as this; [...] In my view the deep keel man on this coast is like a blind man having a day out in a nudist camp; he can enjoy the sunshine and fresh air, but is unable to appreciate other interesting aspects of the situation.

In fact now I come to type it in there's two metaphors there for the price of one: the "lead mine" he's talking about is the fin keel most modern yachts have.

As he's writing this he's sailing up the River Alde past Iken to Snape Maltings and "the coast" he's referring to is the swatchways and creeks of the Thames Estuary. I learnt to sail on the Alde in a lapwing dinghy and now do most of my sailing on the coast he's referring to although sadly we do have the lead mine he's talking about.

He's a very odd cove is AC Stock. On the plus side the book contains a wealth of knowledge about these waters. On the down side he seems to have little sense of humour and is totally convinced that his way of sailing is the only right way of doing so. When he goes cruising he never goes ashore unless he really has to and seems obsessed with racking up the sea miles, happily setting off at ridiculous hours of the day and night to make passages.