Thursday, October 17, 2013

Lunch with Bob

I finally got to meet Bob Lush last week.

Bob suggested Mount Royal, in the area near the Smith House, across from the police riding stable.
It was a beautiful setting, on a gorgeous sun-drenched fall day.  Bob spoiled me.  He had stopped by Schwartz's on the way to the rendez-vous and picked up some smoked meat sandwiches and kosher dill pickles.  He flatly refused my attempt to pay.

We spent almost two hours chatting.

Oddly, we spent more time talking about sailing, than riding.

Bob is a fascinating guy, a retired sailing magazine publisher, and an expert sailor.  And I don't mean that he's a talented weekend fair-weather Lac St-Louis sailor.  I mean serious ocean sailing.  He spent twenty-odd years sailing his 37 foot sailboat in the Caribbean, from his home base in the Virgin Islands where he lived on his boat.  He's a skipper's skipper.  He taught himself celestial navigation, and then taught others the skills he learned.  Give Bob a decent sailboat, a sextant and some half decent charts, and there is nowhere on this planet he couldn't roam.

I am not a sailor, but I have known more than a few sailors.  Some with decent sailing skills, some who sailed by the seat of their pants, and others who made up for gaps in skills with large amounts of money.  Bob strikes me as a guy who knows more about bridging money gaps with mad skills than most other people I have been privileged to meet.

Oh... and Bob took up riding at 70, that's his ticket to freedom, and this is his ride.
I should add that I only know three riders who use throttle locks. There's Bob, there's me, and then there's Bob.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

David:

MMMM Shwartz's. Too bad the line was too long. I clicked on their website and I can smell the sandwich from here. Never thought of "take out". We could have phoned our order in and went inside to pick it up, cause we ended up in Mount Royal too

bob
Riding the Wet Coast

Trobairitz said...

Glad you had such a great meeting and lunch. Would be amazing to sail around the Caribbean.

FYI - Brad and I both use those throttle control locks too. Love it.

len@RE-GLAZE-IT said...

Nice one David ..... Sounds like Bob has had a wonderful time on the water, what great freedom that must feel like,
Knowing he can navigate himself anywhere WOW.
Moving onto the throttle lock ,
How long have you been able to ride without knocking it off lock and where was it??

Kindest regards
Len

David Masse said...

Too true Bob. You see there are an unlimited ways to enjoy a trip to Montreal. We only barely scratched the surface.

David Masse said...

Trobairitz, the throttle lock was a real joy on the tour this summer. It's endlessly useful. Even on my commute, there are times when it's really useful to be able to free up my throttle hand, if only for a few moments.

David Masse said...

Len I think that I must have done at least 250 km on the first leg to Toronto with the throttle locked wide open. It really makes that kind of ride much less tiring because you don't have to keep constant pressure on the twist grip.

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