Is sailing romantic?

[Nostrodamus]

Why do people have such a romantic streak when it comes to sailing?

Read most poems and they write through rose coloured glasses about life at sea. People seem to think romance and sailing go together.

Anyone who has a boat knows there is always work to be done, usually on the heads or engine besides a million other jobs. Being stuck in a storm is not my idea of a romantic situation. Neither is having someone aboard who is continually sea sick.

On a long sail the crew can smell, the boat can get damp, cooking gets down to basics as does most other things.

So is sailing romantic or am I an old sceptic (you can also read that as septic)?

[atoll]

in the olden days reading and writing poetry,took your mind off rum ,sodomy and the lash

[Doodles]

Because we have selective memory?

We forget the bad and remember the good; otherwise, women would never have more than one child.

[Doodles]

Originally Posted by atoll

in the olden days reading and writing poetry,took your mind off rum ,sodomy and the lash

Personally, I'd have gone for the rum to take my mind off the sodomy and the lash?

[Coops]

Maybe it's the rum that makes you think of it. Or is that just me?

Coops.

[atoll]

Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash
The great naval traditions
of the British Isles were once
most lofty, high, and sacred.
But one day a man, with but
cigar smoke and bowler hat,
condemned it as "nothing but
Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash."
Alas! Alas! Alas! What
a terrible blow he struck!
Veiled women wear black, grizzled
sailors' pride brought low, and
grand naval Seraphim weep!
And today the Sirens have
lost all hope, for men of the sea
are few. Now the mariner
name is now nothing but shame
and I blame Winston Churchill.

quote"lord inquisitor"

[Teknav]

Sailing is romantic when you are on someone else's boat, and you're enjoying a two-hour sunset cruise. Steel band music is playing, rum punch and hors- d'oeuvres are being served and not having to worry about seamanship or boat issues..

Another romantic situation...also on someone else's boat...you sail/power boat to a diving destination...then dive, dive, dive! That's the extent of it!

Mauritz
Sailing is for short distances...Flying is for long distances. Romance is subjective!

[atoll]

The Pogues "Billy's Bones" (Studio) Rum Sodomy & the Lash Shane MacGowan irish folk punk oi - YouTube

[carstenb]

you mean like this?

The gray sea doth,
caress me as she is wont.
The waves,
rounded and full as her breast.
Tempt me,
beyond my reason.
She lies on deck,
her beauty captivating even Posiden.
Sun glistening,
her skin afire in the sunset.
Impatient at the helm,
I wait,
Knowing she will come to me,
This night.

The reason people write poems about sailing (boats) is the same reason people can spend hours looking at sailboats and only minutes looking at motorboats. Sailboats conjure up visions of silence, far-away islands, white beaches, adventure, grass skirts, bounty land.

Motorboats conjure up visions of loud noise, gas odors etc.

What do ou dream about?

[nigel1]

Clearly whoever wrote this was not overly enamored with sailing

But stay clear of the sea I tell thee, a thankless mistress, a gypsy, a love-mad thing, ‘twill twist thy soul and make thee but a manikin of a man.
Up in the shrouds dancing to the fiddle of the winds, the green combers will be thy hills and valleys, changing and gone. Every port in the world with lights aglitter in the evening will be thy homecoming, with a home at none.
Thou’lt sweat in the cockpit with lice and roaches for thy bed-fellows, and turn from linen and lavender to crawl to it again, hungry for the taste of salt air and rotten pork. And the swell of the hundred fathoms will swing thee on to God know what, but the slavery thou wilt call freedom.
Thou’lt stand watch with ghosts in the starlight, and the devils of hell in the storms; and thou’lt drown at last, nothing surer, with a blinding light in thine eyes, and thy head bursting; and not even a stone to mark thy grave. It will not matter, for thy friends will all have forgotten thee; aye, even those thou lovest best.
So dance with the village maidens and pay them with trinkets and farthings, take a lady for thy wife, plant thy patch and hoe it, and laugh at fools like me.

FOR EVER ADRIFT

[capt-couillon]

A couple of essays I posted on my own views of the subject
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post1355956

[jeremiason]

I think owning a boat and sailing are similar to labor...

You cuss, bitch and moan through the bad times and forget all about that when you are at anchor watching a beautiful sunset!

[sailorboy1]

maybe because in the old days after a long voyage of months on end with a bunch of smelly guys, when a sailor got to land he had a big dose of "romance" on this mind

[tamicatana]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

when a sailor got to land he had a big dose of "romance" on this mind

and then when he got back to sea he had a big dose**






**of mercury

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by carstenb

you mean like this?

The gray sea doth,
caress me as she is wont.
The waves,
rounded and full as her breast.
Tempt me,
beyond my reason.
She lies on deck,
her beauty captivating even Posiden.
Sun glistening,
her skin afire in the sunset.
Impatient at the helm,
I wait,
Knowing she will come to me,
This night.

That is gorgeous. What is it? You've stumped both me and Mr. Google.