Mr. Strand said recently that much of his time had been taken up reading others' poetry, most of it bad.

Once out of the harbor, he increased the speed to 30 knots, and Mr. Strand noted how small the wake was.

Mr. Strand spent six weeks making it habitable.

At that point, $500,000 to $600,000 bought a 15-foot-wide brownstone shell, Mr. Strand said.

Mr. Strand had assumed a recent buyer was cleaning up.

What he needed, Mr. Strand realized, was a vacant lot.

But Mr. Strand noted that their living room was 14 by 16 feet.

Mr. Strand was willing to sell for $450,000 if he could find an alternate lot to build on.

"Cyd made me promise she would never live in a construction site again," Mr. Strand said.

Yet they make Mr. Strand seem less like a visionary to be approached reverentially.