Why did you run away to sea?

[vodoo]

Hello. I have been liv aboard about 15 years now (how time flys) and i still love it! I have met alot of wonderful people in the live aboatd community, talk about a cast of characters! Oh yeah zombies cant swim so i feel much safer

[Skip JayR]

Eben, the title of your thread is a very provocative one. At least, I hope so, you just wanted provocate. Otherwise I'd have to see it as "negative stigmatisation".

Its a real nonsense if one would do the false assumption, that "living on land" is the right form, and "living on sea/sailing offshore" only can be interprated as "running away from the right form of living". That would be very silly same saying: All who live on land are cowards fearing the sea to be drowned and eaten by sharks or monster wales like Mobby Dick.

Why is it not a "running away" ?

We know, that 20% of all humans have so called "adventure gene" = R7 (Rec.: The genetic variant is DRD4-7R. D4 is the Dopamine receptor.).

Watch this video and you see, that the fashion industries, e.g. producing sailing gears are analysing the motives of buyers, e.g. in cities who like to wear "clothes of adventurers".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dfiU6hsSIM

Automotive industries like Landrover brand is analysing such sciences, too for understanding the "habit of being an adventurer"...
New Discovery Sport Adventure Gene Test by Land Rover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIOcgfz_KRU

We should be clear, that by history of seafarers it was not a running away.... sail ships had a function, e.g. exploring new land, transporting goods (e.g. spices delivered by the East Indian Company to the consumers in Europe), slavery ships (transporting human flesh as cheap workers to the Carribean plantages), exploring ships (e.g. nowadays seen in Arctic regions) and battle ships for conquering or defending territories.

Many of the seafarers we know from our ancestors havent become sailors by free will. E.g. people had been driven by hunger and lack of work to take a ship for emigrating (e.g. the Irish arriving in New York in the 19th century).
Many of the simple sailors of low ranks who had no school education had been been shanghaied in the 18th/19th century being made drunken in a harbour bar, knocked down and found themselves waking up on high seas being misused over years to work on wale ships or war ships. - We all know that Seamanship isnt as romantic as "land rats" like to think.

Okeys.. now we live in 21st century. Times have changed. We live in luxury times nowadays to have sports sailing, yacht racing and cruising yachts made cheaply of plastic (epoxy glas fibre), either as charter boats or as living on a boat owners... and some few made it having earned enough money (on land) to buy a boat and decided for the right job (as freelancer) to be free living very individually their own life style, e.g. working as software developer or translators on their yachts using Internet and Wifi.

On my own I can say for my self that comparing a land based land with a living on a boat (I know both styles)... is has some (+) and (-), as every coin has two sides.

Living on board means you have your own cosmos, following your own rules of traditionally seamanship. Simple rules to follow... like using daily a check list what to do and all the "donts" you avoid for safetyness. But same on yachts one has lots of bureaucracy to get the permits for staying for some weeks or months in foreign countries. Not only funny to cruise around.

For me living on a boat is "simplyfing my life". I dont get stressed with the burdons I have on a ship... while the "modern life" on land is full of garbage wasting lots of time for nothing good you see everyday stupidity around, from violence (within families/partnerships and between nations) to destroying the environment (e.g. using huge energy ressources for nothing good), modern slavery misusing cheap workers, corruption and betraying. Being animated daily by advertising to buy this, to be that, to do this can get on one nerves as its just to consume steadily. Very boring.

But truthfully to say, there are good people living on land, too. Being in harmony, doing ecologically farming, living together in a community or own family avoiding to produce lost of waste and try to handle their energy ressources well balanced. There exist some few attractive life styles on land, too.

For me living on a boat is "slow down the speed". It trains own senses, it let you live the moment of now, not forgetting to do a well pre-planning (e.g. weather routing) for own safetyness. But its not overcomplicated... all the parameters are given since long. And its not too difficult to handle them so long one got a good education in sailing, yachting and skippering.

Sailing can teach a lot, about yourself, same as you can do rock climbing to learn about yourself or free diving with sharks, or playing GO (eldest strategic board game). There are many ways to find yourself, sailing is just one form. - It let you be close to mother nature.... which can give me energy back. Why should I waste my time in a gym while I can train my physically strength steadily during handling a yacht ?

I dont think, one should go sailing because the motive is "running away". It would be something like "hiding from yourself". Not very healthy I would say. One should decide actively for something and not against something.

[daletournier]

Skip Jayr.....awesome post.

Sent from my GT-N7105T using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[Capt Phil]

Well said, jayR... While I ran away to sea when I was a youngster(14 years old), my adoptive mothers boyfriend who used to reel off tales about his adventures during WWll was the one who really captured my imagination when I was about 9-10 years old. He spent time on the Murmansk run and escaped being torpedoed by luck but had a few scrapes he told about with some relish after he was finished with my mom. I recall vividly him sitting on the end of the sofa where I slept rattling on for hours about his adventures. I believe he told me about a story when he was a young lad, tall, rangy but pretty skinny being pressed aboard one of the last tea ships to leave Africa for Great Britain and his tale of drinking with the crew in a pub in Durban and waking up on a sailing ship destined for Southampton in GB. He was around 15 he recalled during the last days of sail. Facinating guy, I wish my mom had married him rather than the ******* she hooked up with who used to beat the crap out of me! That caused me to follow his advice and run away to sea.
It was a great life that I would highly recommend to any young man or woman who loves adventure and wants to escape a bad home situation or other citified problem. Cheers, Phil

[Skip JayR]

Originally Posted by Capt Phil

Well said, jayR... While I ran away to sea when I was a youngster(14 years old), my adoptive mothers boyfriend who used to reel off tales about his adventures during WWll was the one who really captured my imagination when I was about 9-10 years old. He spent time on the Murmansk run and escaped being torpedoed by luck but had a few scrapes he told about with some relish after he was finished with my mom. I recall vividly him sitting on the end of the sofa where I slept rattling on for hours about his adventures. I believe he told me about a story when he was a young lad, tall, rangy but pretty skinny being pressed aboard one of the last tea ships to leave Africa for Great Britain and his tale of drinking with the crew in a pub in Durban and waking up on a sailing ship destined for Southampton in GB. He was around 15 he recalled during the last days of sail. Facinating guy, I wish my mom had married him rather than the ******* she hooked up with who used to beat the crap out of me! That caused me to follow his advice and run away to sea.
It was a great life that I would highly recommend to any young man or woman who loves adventure and wants to escape a bad home situation or other citified problem. Cheers, Phil

Tks for sharing your own story, CaptnP. Wowh.... impressive and shocking that you have known this guy as kid who was shanghaied. Unbelievable that it still existed in 20th century.

As Kid I was fascinated by books... I read all about the real existing explorers of the 15th century, e.g. Columbus, the Portugese Vasco Da gama who discovered the sailing route between Europe and Asia, Ferdinand Magellan who was the first circumnavigator of his times and of course the lately British Captain James Cook who eneded dramatically being killed on Hawaii.

Fascinating the early travelling of Italian Marco Polo who lived in the 13th century and who sailed along coast of China, India to Ormuz

But most I was influenced by the fictional figure Horatio Hornblower, an officer and captain of the British Royal Navy battling in the times of 18th century and key figure of the novels written by C.S. Forester. I read all again and again.

No one better than Gregory Peck represented him in the HW movie of 1951...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-maJMXy4vIA

[Curious Sailor]

Originally Posted by vodoo

Oh yeah zombies cant swim so i feel much safer

LOL

[Eben]

Originally Posted by Skip JayR

Eben, the title of your thread is a very provocative one. At least, I hope so, you just wanted provocate. Otherwise I'd have to see it as "negative stigmatisation".

There was no malice in the title, plain and simple, an old salt told me that everybody runs away to sea, that's just what it's called. I guess I'm guilty of trying to "fit in" by using the correct nomenclature. Obviously my choice of words has stirred up a few things with a few forum users.

I suppose in a way you're right, I did want people to respond to my question, albeit in a positive way not negative.

As for the rest of your post, it's very insightful! I haven't had a chance to watch the videos you linked yet, but I will do later today.

Thanks for the other replies as well, I thought this thread had died, but obviously there's a lot more to add!

[Curious Sailor]

Awesome thread Eben!

[Cap Erict3]

I "went" to sea as a youth to earn a living and spent many an hour thinking of the day that I would live on the other side of life on the water. When it would be my magic carpet, my opiate and maybe my resting place.

My boat is a big part of the attraction to this life. It's much more than a floating home or mode of transportation. It's kinda like a companion.

I gotta go now. Some guys in white coats are bangin' on the hatch.

[SebastianB]

I come from a nomadic people on my fathers side. I fully believe that it is a genetic pull. Due to the fact that my Mothers family were farmers, I have had a somewhat bipolar experience. My fahters people all lived and worked either on the water or near the water, sailors, boat captains, fishermen, or just plain river rats. My Grandparents never stayed any one place too long. They would move from the swamp to the city for work then back to the swamp for trapping in the winter. My fahter went to work on tugs in the gulf when he was 14. Joint the Navy at 17 and spent most of his life after that as a boat captain on the inland rivers and the GICWW. I grew up 2 hours from the gulf and it always called to me. I wnet to work on towboats the day I turned 18. I later left the river but a man told me "You will be back on the water..once you wear out a pair of workboots on the water you will always come back. Over the next few years I went to college but would work boat jobs on and off. Worked on drilling rigs and eventually started working on oil and gas platforms around 15 years ago. The only thing about this work is that you are are somewhat like a hungry person looking into a fancy restaurant. On the sea but not in the sea. Last summer we finally bought a sailboat and moved aboard in August. My soul is home.

[Ribbit]

It's the Circus you run away to, not the sea.

A truly wonderful thing the Circus is too. Good friends daughter went to Circus School with her boyfriend, and after hearing all the trials and tribulations that accompanied their progress and apprenticeship through Circus School (boot camp is a holiday in comparison), I was invited to go to the students graduating Circus. What a wonderful show, what they achieved was a credit to all of them, and, what a wonderful social evening after.

So even though running away to the Circus might seem a really bad idea to some, it absolutely isn't.

The sea?

It calls you.

You are either listening,

or you aren't.

[JPA Cate]

My mothers' people were from Portugal and the Azores, and her great grandfather was a ship's captain. My fathers, also included ships captains, and his mother, a very independent woman.

It was Jim, though who had the dream, and we joined together in pursuit of it, after I had become a sailor.

Our first offshore trip was in a 30 footer, from SF to HI and return. Don't know if i have the adventure gene or not.

Ann