When I was young my grandmother ran a small hotel on a lake in the Catskills, and I’ve written about the idyllic summers I spent there with my family. (See My Heart Remembers My Grandmother’s Hotel, Hotel Kittens, My Game Mother, and Our Special Guests.) One happy memory of those childhood summers is rowing on the lake with my father, and when I was old enough, taking a rowboat out on my own. Since then I’ve certainly been on larger and more impressive crafts – but...