Why do you do it?

[akprb]

On a recent solo delivery down the east coast the thought crossed my mind "why do I continue to do this?" Please don't get me wrong, there is no desire to stop, although at times sure is tempting :-)

My question to you is why do you do it? Sincerely, interested mostly in the philosophic side of the equation as opposed to the experiential.

Here's a recent piece where I thought about it a bit. I'm really curious of others thoughts on the same.

___________________

Just a few short weeks ago I took off to deliver Ohana from Daytona Beach down to Nassau in preparation for our family Christmas. Again solo and a lot of time to think over all the years of doing this "life", the "Why".

I've been at this since I was about ten years old and at 52 can look at my father's nautical library and see the hand the guided. They say the son lives out the unfulfilled dreams of the father. That seems to be the case for me.

My dad loved boats. He loved to read and he took those steps, a Catalina 22, joined the local club, took the Coast Guard course (with his 12 year old son in tow for the junior version), and read. We would go to the New York Boat show each year, I would be given the plastic bag with the task to collect every brochure possible. There are almost too many stories from that time in our lives. I still have on my desk today the little Panasonic RF-1060 that has a "public service band". I would play with that for hours.

Summers racing on the Hudson River, the annual "sea scout cruise" to Long Island Sound, four years in the Coast Guard, yacht broker, captain, unlikely investor, cruising the Caribbean and eventually crossing the Pacific and living in New Zealand, ferry captain and then back to basics on a little basic Hunter, of all boats, bopping up and down the east coast with our daughters.

After all of it I sit in his library, he's gone now, and look over all the books he loved so much. I sit in the chair he would read in, recall the short wave receiver he would listen for us on. It's quiet and good.

Why? It's like anything else I guess, it's in me........a gift of adventure from a father to a son.

Enjoy yours as well and have a blessed day.

[sailorboy1]

I only got into boating to cruise (travel), and I only got into sailing because I didn't think I was going to have enough money to pay for the fuel for a power boat. But it turned out that so far we like sailing (mostly).

[Liam Wald]

I first went sailing when I was 22 years old. I was immediately passionate about it. By the time I was 24 I had saved enough to buy a modest little cruiser and cut my teeth cruising the California coast between San Francisco and San Diego. That was 40 years ago. The boat I own now is my 5th. I really can't imaging not having a boat, although like you there have been times that I am out there getting pounded, or in the boat yard spending WAY too much $$$ and wondered what was wrong with me.
I guess that, for me, it is the sense that boats are living things and that they return the care lavished upon them with a wonderful sense of freedom and a connection to what is real.

[DDabs]

What kind of boat is that in the video? It's hard to tell what direction/where the mast is. Catamaran?

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by DDabs

What kind of boat is that in the video? It's hard to tell what direction/where the mast is. Catamaran?

A Hunter Legend I believe...

[akprb]

Liam, great reply. You reminded me of another reason why. Every trip, whether a week or a year is like a mini life. It has a beginning, middle and an end.

It reminds me that life is the same and to be aware and to make the most of it.

The boat in the video is our former Catamaran banging up from New Zealand to Tonga :-)

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by akprb

Liam, great reply. You reminded me of another reason why. Every trip, whether a week or a year is like a mini life. It has a beginning, middle and an end.

It reminds me that life is the same and to be aware and to make the most of it.

The boat in the video is our former Catamaran banging up from New Zealand to Tonga :-)

Not often I'm right but.. I'm wrong again.!!

[monte]

Nice story ak

[DDabs]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Not often I'm right but.. I'm wrong again.!!

It's alright

[gamayun]

My experience is much more limited than yours. I have only just begun my sea journeys, but I certainly like what they have to offer. So far my only big passage was a solo trip bringing Kynntana back to San Francisco from Monterey. I couldn't find crew so said, "what the heck." I also delayed a day because of weather, but could see that it was just going to deteriorate further and probably keep me "stuck" into the following week. So I fueled up about 5 pm and set off. Things didn't start off too well when my small, self-tending jib decided to shake loose from the camberspar. Putting this back on meant rigging a pulley system around the mast to get enough leverage on the sail to hook it back into the spar. I was motor-sailing anyway so figured I didn't really need the jib and the bow was already plunging into some steep swell. I didn't want to get soaked so early in the trip. Then the waves and wind picked up some more and my depth gauge read zero as the boat slid over the deep offshore canyon. The bilge kept cycling on and off as I was taking a lot of water in through the old shaft seal. It didn't seem to be too much. Then the waves got bigger and they were washing over the dodger. It was just about dark by then. I closed my eyes to see if I could steer well enough to avoid crashing headlong into the bigger swells. I kept thinking, "is this too much to handle?" It never did seem so. Just as it was turning very dark and I thought I'd be steering by feel alone, a huge full moon rises behind me lighting the front of the bow. Shortly afterward, an albatross starts circling the mast, looking for a place to perch. I was talking and laughing to the bird saying there was no way it was going to be able to do that with the mast whipping around, but I did watch it nervously for a long time as it almost succeed several times to come in for a landing. The bird must have circled overhead for an hour while I settled my nerves and started looking forward to the long night. Seas stayed above 6-8 feet with winds mostly around 23-28 knots until about 0300 when I could lie down and sleep for about an hour or two in the cockpit. We approached the channel to the Golden Gate Bridge around 7 am, and were escorted under the bridge at the same time as several warships were coming for Fleet Week with their midshipmen standing sharply at attention on deck while I presented a disheveled contrast and wearily wiped the sleep from my eyes.

That's why I do it.

[Mirage35]

When I am on a boat under sail (especially if I'm at the helm) I am nowhere else - it's all that matters. And there isn't much else that makes me feel that way.

[boatman61]

Nuttin betta ta do..!!..??

[Jim Cate]

Well, I used to amuse myself by standing on my head in the shower stuffing hundred dollar bills down the drain. That was really good fun, but the drain plugged up and plumbers are too expensive, so I went sailing... and still am!

Jim

[Sovereign797]

Originally Posted by AnglaisInHull

When I am on a boat under sail (especially if I'm at the helm) I am nowhere else - it's all that matters. And there isn't much else that makes me feel that way.

This. So much this. It's what I'm looking for and hoped to find in sailing.

[maxingout]

There is no short answer to this question.

Arthur Besser put it this way.

Where did they go?
Nowhere, everywhere.
What did they accomplish?
Nothing, everything.

I put it this way: SAILING UNI - JOIN TEAM MAXING OUT AS THEY SAIL AROUND THE WORLD ON THEIR PRIVILEGE 39 CATAMARAN - EXIT ONLY

I also put it this way: SAILING UNI - JOIN TEAM MAXING OUT AS THEY SAIL AROUND THE WORLD ON THEIR PRIVILEGE 39 CATAMARAN - EXIT ONLY

And I also put it this way: GUILTY OF LIVING MY DREAMS - I AM AN UNSTOPPABLE, CONSISTENTLY POSITIVE, ENDLESSLY PERSISTENT, DOER OF DREAMS - DAVID J. ABBOTT M.D.