Sorry to resurrect by-gone topics but I came across this post during a search and... this song is about a woman?!?!
To me I have always interpreted this song as being about a boat in his posession, that he had to give up because he "could not hold her" for whatever reason. Now he misses her and is hoping she will find her way back home and not find herself lying high and dry due to the abuse of the other owners like the skipper who ran her up a boulder
How many women have sails that blow like bubbles?
Of course it could be another metaphor.