Challenge: One Word About Sailing

[jkd]

Time

Time to procrastinate enough to feel decadent
Time to have a true conversation with whomever is aboard or yourself if alone in your thoughts
Time to watch the wave patterns, the fish splashing in those waves or the birds circling those fish from above
Time to feel the calm of an anchorage or the terror of too much sail at the wrong time
Time to contemplate the stars overhead and your place in the universe
Time to enjoy or loathe the spray in your face
Time to feel the vessel under foot or lack of footing when it gets rough
Time to watch the clouds roll by and what they remind you of
Time from work
Time to relax
Time to have a beer after a hot day
Time for ...........

John

[wcsailor]

change

change of tack
change of sails
change of heading
change of scenery
change of weather
change of mind
change of sea state
change of (personal) environment

Much like Mark's response, my answer goes a bit beyond the act of sailing the boat. Constant change is what I love most about 'everything' boating. When we lived aboard, then our year cruising, every day was different. Now, land-bound, I'm bored. I crave the kind of change that only boating provides...Time to move back to a boat!

[Tropic Cat]

satisfaction

[Sandero]

reality

[BlueSovereign]

self-actualization .......

[Celestialsailor]

Trust

I trust in my abilities to keep myself and crew safe
I trust that the design of my boat is a good one.
I trust that Mother Ocean and my vessel and I will flow as one.
I trust that the Universal power and I flow as one.

[Jan Norway]

It is not easy to find one word, because people who live on their boat will have a different idea than people who only use as recreation. Also a family will have a different idea from a single person – like me. I like ‘freedom’ but I also think the only people who are truly free are free from constraints of money, and not many people with sailboats have that. I like “peace’ as well, but I finally go for.
TRANQUILITY

[Jennymar]

I was married for 14 years to an Irishman (real Irish, born and raised there til he knocked up an American girl in Berlin,ME!). He scoffed at every dream I ever held dear...be it starting a business, or traveling with our children or just painting the kitchen and had no pursuits of his own beyond team sports or pub socializing.
The year I left him was the first year I ever bought anything in my own name. I bought a 1969 Coronado '25 sloop. The previous owner was an elderly woman who had bought the boat new in 1969 when she divorced her husband. She sailed out of Redwood City and many times to Mexico and back...all by herself.
The one word I think of when I think of sailing is independence. Though mind you, I have had to call vessel assist before!

[jimking100]

I go with READY2GO...cheating and all.
jim

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Jennymar

I bought a 1969 Coronado '25 sloop. I think of sailing is independence.

Great story, Jenny

[Portobello]

Bliss!

[sandy daugherty]

Mastery

To meet the challenge of moving your household from one place to another using only the wind and current, through a complete mastery of the vessel and its sails, its strengths and weaknesses, in a wide range of weather conditions, in a calm and measured manner.

[Starbuck]

+1 satisfaction
+1 challenge
+1 escape


Self-reliance.

If you must give lengthy explanations, you may not be confident that anyone else will understand your choice, and are definitely stealing the opportunity for we others to ponder the possible meanings of your barbaric yawp* ourselves. Let your word speak. Less is more here.

* Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Song of Myself 52:

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world.

[maxingout]

Living my dreams.

For me, the dream is all about adventure, freedom, and being really alive. Although I like seeing the sights wherever we go, I think it's the sense of adventure coupled with the freedom to do what I want to do with my life, seasoned with a pinch of adrenalin that makes it all worthwhile. It doesn't matter whether I drive down a hundred foot sand dune, sail through pirate alley, or voyage across an ocean, I still get the feeling that I am really alive and am accomplishing something that's important to me. I'm living my dreams, and although it's a lot of work, costs lots of money, and spends the currency of my youth, that doesn't matter, because I'm doing what I want to do with my life as I live without regrets.

On the wall in front of my desk, I have a graphic emblazoned in large red letters:

WWSD

Those letters mean, WHAT WOULD STEVE DO?

I've always admired Steve Irwin from the Australian Zoo and his outrageous ability to get the most out of life. Whenever I feel like chickening out and surrendering my dreams, I look up at my WWSD sign, and I remind myself that if Steve was still here, he would be living his dreams, and that there's no reason that I shouldn't be living mine.

It's my dreams that get me up in the morning and keep me going all day long. It's my dreams that keep me sailing, and someday will take me around the world in my Land Rover Defenders. Every time I go out sailing on the seven seas and travel in my Defenders, I can feel the freedom bubble up in my heart and mind.

Once you have a taste of freedom and live your dreams, you are hooked for life, and nothing else will do.

[Microship]

Ooh ooh... can I go again? *waves hand eagerly*

Nomadness. That's why I named my boat that.

;-)

Steve