Sailor ‘a little nutty,’ and happy

Capt. Jack Fanning EVAN WILLIAMS / FLORIDA WEEKLY Anchored at the yacht basin in downtown Fort Myers, Capt. Jack Fanning has been tuning up his sailboat and biding his time. In mid-November, after hurricane season ends, he plans to depart for Central America. His planned route: 450 miles across the open ocean to Cozumel, Mexico, then south along the shore to Belize. He sailed from the Chesapeake Bay to Fort Myers last year, but those thrills faded over the long, hot summer. Even at 74 years old, his lust for adventure demands to be satisfied in the indelible now.

“I’ve been here four months — that adrenaline is gone,” he said impatiently. “I can’t live on that anymore. And I need to get out of here because, well, I want to. I’ve got other things to do besides work on boats and go to the bar at night for an hour. I can’t stop because I still want to live. I just can’t stop.”

Mr. Fanning suggests that his family, including two sisters up in Illinois, near where he grew up, think he’s out of his holy damn mind to live by himself on a sailboat. “But they know that I’m happy,” he said. “One said the other day, ‘Jack, we know you’re happy.’” He adds, “They’re interested in one thing: security. And see, I’m really not. Security to me is a couple thousand dollars in the bank account and my boat running right.”

The loneliness of his life manifests itself in his old age, and in the cramped bowels of the boat where he sleeps, and in the vastness of the ocean he keeps setting sail in. He’s bone skinny, with a tan that must reach to the marrow; he wears a hearing aid, and sometimes a set of dentures. Mr. Fanning is proud of what his limber old limbs can still do, even if they creak a little. “I’ve always been an adventurer and to do everything alone at my age is pushing it,” he said. He likes to fish, snorkel and swim. “I love to swim because there’s no pressure on the body,” he said. “It keeps you flexible.”

John F. Fanning grew up in landlocked Illinois. An Army buddy introduced him to the sailing life, which he’s loved ever since. He remembers owning 10 boats in his lifetime, and has one suspicion about them. Five years ago, a sailboat he was living on in South Carolina sunk after he changed the original name to “Choices.”

“It’s bad luck to change the name,” he said. That’s why when he bought his current boat a few years ago, a 30-foot gas-powered Pearson, he kept the name “Sunstruck.”

“It sounds just a little nutty, like me,” he said.

After “Choices” sunk, he had to go back to Illinois and work a low-paying job at a car wash. “And on top of that, I hated the boss,” he said. That was before he moved to Maryland. He got his captain’s license, then landed a $15-an-hour job showing new Sea Ray owners how to use their boats in the Chesapeake Bay. He’s held many jobs in his life, but the most recurring profession has been salesman. A few decades ago, he lived on Fort Myers Beach for a short time, selling Caterpillar tractors.

His son and daughter-in-law, and their two children, live in Texas. “Nice family,” Mr. Fanning said. “(My son) works hard, does well. He doesn’t worry about me and I don’t worry about him.”

He plans to save up $3,000 before leaving for Belize. He has also thought of chartering sailing trips for American tourists once he gets there. “I’ll be all right unless I get in one hellacious storm and then hey, that’s the end of my life,” he shrugs. “It’s better than dying in a cornfield in Illinois or playing dominoes in a rest home. I’m just a weird old man looking for adventure, and looking for a friend. I’m always looking for a friend.”

Last Saturday morning, he sipped a Bloody Mary, lit a Marlboro Red, sat on the deck of his boat and counted his blessings, especially being single, and owing no money to anyone. “I’m free, but I’m not 21,” he said. Youth is hard to come by for him these days, but of course thoughts of it never leave his mind. Oscar Wilde said it best: “The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.” 