Singing in the Sun

G. Henry Steges dedication to sailing was a natural development. Raised on theConnecticut shore of Long Island Sound, he followed a career in internationalmarketing while sailing a series of boats from dinghies to several larger craft:a familycruiser named Starduster, then a successful one-ton ocean racing yacht namedStegosaurus, and finally a fifty-foot cutter named Stegosaurus II. After earning his Coast Guard Captains license and PADI Divemaster certification,he and his wife teamed up to operate Stegosaurus II as a charter yacht. Over atwelve year period they sailed more than 22,000 ocean miles commuting betweenConnecticut and the Virgin Islands, and approximately 4,000 miles running chartersthrough the Virgins and various Windward Islands of the Caribbean.. His experiences formed the basis for two volumes of verse: Whistling in the Darkand Singing in the Sun, each of about 145 poems. They earned him the selfappointedtitle of Underwater Poet. Ashore following the sale of Stegosaurus II, heextrapolated his sailing life into two novels: Wingsof Morning and Hurry Sunrise, following anearlier work, unrelated to the ocean, titled Seasonof the Fireflies. Sadly, Stegosaurus II was sunk by her newowner 200 miles south of Haiti during a singlehandedwinter passage from Florida to Aruba. He survived. The boat did not.