The great newscaster and cultural icon Walter Cronkite died on this day, July 17, 2009.
Walter Cronkite was a hard-core sailor, and owned a Westsail 42, a wide double-ender capable of sailing pretty much anywhere.
The boat’s dinghy was called “Assignment” — so when Walter was “on assignment,” you never quite knew what that meant.
Coming through the narrows on Kent Island on the Chesapeake Bay, Walter was on the tiller when a fellow on the refueling dock waved. “Hello Walter”.
Walter Cronkite was used to people recognizing him, and he waived back, and the fellow waved more vigorously. “Hello Walter”.
Walter smiled and waved again…. and then crunched onto the tidal flat.
The fellow had been yelling “Low water!”
Walter Cronkite himself liked to tell this story.
His old boat, Wyntje, was for sale a few years back for $75,000 — a 1979 Westsail 42 built to heavy scantlings and with very good joiner work, now rigged as a cutter (as originally designed) rather than a yawl (as Cronkite rigged it), and with new fittings throughout.
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