Is it the Actual Sailing or the Adventure and Possibility?

[djousset]

As a relatively new boat owner this thread really made me reflect on what it is that drew me in, and what keeps me in. I love that sailing is physical, non-linear, exciting and challenging. I love that it is quiet, ever-changing yet reliable, and easy on the environment. I love the simplicity of the vessel (in my case anyways), and I love that it teaches patience, perseverance, adaptability, independence and resourcefulness. All while underway to new destinations! For me the act of sailing is joyous in that it brings with it both adventure and possibility.

[LauraleeG]

Originally Posted by djousset

As a relatively new boat owner this thread really made me reflect on what it is that drew me in, and what keeps me in. I love that sailing is physical, non-linear, exciting and challenging. I love that it is quiet, ever-changing yet reliable, and easy on the environment. I love the simplicity of the vessel (in my case anyways), and I love that it teaches patience, perseverance, adaptability, independence and resourcefulness. All while underway to new destinations! For me the act of sailing is joyous in that it brings with it both adventure and possibility.

Well said!!!🥳🥳🥳

[Siberian Sea]

I sail solo because most everything I hate in life I find back there on land around all those people. Drama, politics, marketing propaganda, the pressure to conform and get in step. No, out here it’s freedom away from all that. Out here I have room and time, no one to answer too. Out here I can breathe. I never feel as good as I do when I’m out at sea on a boat sailing away from land and all that back there.

[Group9]

This quote from Sterling Hayden's book Wanderer, is still one of my favorites (I'm actually reading Wanderer again, right now).

To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea... "cruising" it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.

"I've always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can't afford it."

What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of "security." And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone. What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense, and we know it.

But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by, The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.

Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life? What follows is not a blueprint for the man entombed; not many people find themselves in a situation paying one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year (as if any man is worth that). But, the struggle is relative: it's a lot harder to walk away from an income like that, than a fraction thereof.

Sterling Hayden, 1962

How many pages of comments and postings and discussions have we seen on this site over the years, that are basically summed up by that passage?

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Group9

This quote from Sterling Hayden's book Wanderer, is still one of my favorites (I'm actually reading Wanderer again, right now).

How many pages of comments and postings and discussions have we seen on this site over the years, that are basically summed up by that passage?

Still rings true to me -- increasingly so.

[LauraleeG]

Originally Posted by Group9

This quote from Sterling Hayden's book Wanderer, is still one of my favorites (I'm actually reading Wanderer again, right now).





How many pages of comments and postings and discussions have we seen on this site over the years, that are basically summed up by that passage?

That is so beautiful. Sounds like a book I want to read!

[LauraleeG]

Originally Posted by Siberian Sea

I sail solo because most everything I hate in life I find back there on land around all those people. Drama, politics, marketing propaganda, the pressure to conform and get in step. No, out here it’s freedom away from all that. Out here I have room and time, no one to answer too. Out here I can breathe. I never feel as good as I do when I’m out at sea on a boat sailing away from land and all that back there.

Yes.👏👏

[Tom and Maje]

Originally Posted by Dogscout

Never Stop Traveling. That is why I do it.

Me too.

Maje

[BVLew]

Sailing is the thing I do to relax. I have a high pressure job, can't turn it off. But I can spend all day on the boat, not think a whit about work all day. Yesterday, I was out for 6 hours, flukey wind, had to tack every 10 minutes to catch the puffs and shifts, loved it.

But that's all I do now, day-sailing in my Catalina 30 minivan of a boat on an inland lake. Because there's other things in life, and my wife doesn't get the same joy from sailing that I do. She'll come out with me sometimes, but often I single-hand. I do also have a Laser and occasionally play with it. But the time-investment in trailing to the boat ramp, setting up, sailing out to the lake, then returning and doing all the de-rigging often doesn't get me as much on the water time. I sometimes wish I hadn't 10 years ago sold the Daysailer that I kept in the water -- I think that was the best compromise.

Forty years ago, I cruised. I went from Hawaii to French Polynesia and back to Hawaii as crew. At the end of that trip, had to choose whether to continue cruising or to return to the regular world. I literally went to the airport with one destination in mind, got there and instead bought a ticket home. A few years later, after a Bahamas charter with friends, I was offered a job by the charter company (I'd given them a LONG list of fixes and upgrades the boat needed ). Could have dropped out again then, but stayed conventional. Bought a wooden Lightning, to learn about wooden boats. Lovely, but discovered that I'm willing to make the compromise of plastic to get more sailing time.

My wife of 37 years and I chartered a few times, but then other parts of life came along. I've kept my finger in with rentals, sailing clubs that let you take out one of their boats, the Daysailer, Laser, then a few years ago a Ranger 26 (great sailing, but too grungy for my wife to feel comfortable and I didn't want to do the work to completely overhaul her) and now the Catalina (42 years old, but impeccably kept by previous owners). My kids have all done a little dinghy sailing and go out on the big boat when they visit, but sailing didn't snag them the way it did me.

I've also raced, since I was 8 years old. Some people sail in order to race (they like the competition). I raced in order to sail. I've raced dinghies, keelboats, across oceans and Great Lakes. It's all for the pleasure of sailing. I don't race anymore -- I don't like the inevitable yelling .

I still dream of cruising, that's why I come to this forum (among several sailing sites I visit). I'm less interested in where people visit than in how they're setting up their boats, what sailing challenges they face, how new technologies are changing things (I still don't entirely understand chartplotters, am not sure I'd be willing to give up my paper charts, sextant, almanacs -- but I know I would, since I also like my techie toys ; one of these days, I'll figure out OpenCPN, useless though it is for the sailing I do).

And who knows, maybe one of these days, I can convince my wife to try again .

[IslandInfedel]

Both,

Seeing new places and and people, exploring, that makes me happy

Seeing my gunwals get wet, or a calm and silent sail
through the morning dew also, that also makes me happy.

[Cynara]

When we first started sailing our weekend destination was Catalina Is. 26 miles from Los Angeles, California.

We noticed most of the boats, if there was light winds, everybody would power-up trying to get there. We did the same thing. We begin to think why are we doing this, we were not sailing might as well have a power boat. So we sailed more. Got there later. on busy weekends hard to find a place to anchor. We came to be better sailors and better at anchoring.

From that point on we sailed all the time. On the first 1,000 miles of our cruise we motored, 35 hours, mostly to enter anchorages.

One of our trips was from Cabo San Lucas to Mazatlan in Mexico, about 200 miles, we said the entire distance mostly sailing a one knot. The wind vane was steering so it was slow but comfortable trip.

[dwightsusan]

Me, I'm a sailor man. A catamaran man. An adrenalin junkie. Getting there is the sharp point of my spear. Any ocean. Any weather. Lighter, more horsepower, more complexity. Adjust the heading, trim everything, focus on VMG. Wherever you're going, get there as fast as your boat and your skills will accommodate. That's my own little world out there on the beautiful sea.

[Poche]

Originally Posted by LauraleeG

I was wondering the other day about what I like about being on a boat...is it the SAILING I mean, the act of sailing OR is it the idea and possibility of adventure and the changing views and the challenges it presents?
For me its the adventure and the idea of being able to just go..the sailboat is simply the means by which i can do that.
what is it for you? is it the act of sailing or the adventure? are they mutually exclusive?

Very interesting question.
I think there is a lot of slogging to windward and motoring. Once in awhile there is that beam reach and you feel so good that you will remember.
It's more of an adventure that you will think about later in life.

[Don C L]

I sure don't see it as either-or. I love the sailing. (But I appreciate a good motor now and then too of course.) The act of sailing itself, demanding an blended dance of coaxing wind, cloth, rudder and hull to create a living, motivated being is an inspiring thing to me. We just got back in yesterday and on the way back in we had a great breeze and miles of whitecaps. It was about the fastest I've had her going and on the horizon there was another boat on the way home. I knew where we were going so no mystery there, but to me that boat in the distance meant the race was on! I tweaked sails, moved everyone around, focused myself like a laser so that I could steer to anticipate the swells and not let her broach. Now likely the other boat could not have cared less about me, but I was having a blast none the same and we made it home in what is for me and my little boat (so far) record time. At the same time as we were scudding along punching swells, a large powerboat came along wallowing through the geography. Nothing against powerboats, but I think I was having a lot more fun, at least in those conditions.
Now, the adventure, yes, in my case comes in trying something new and visiting a new (local) place, or a new time of year, and the excitement of the new challenge is there and sailing to it... how to describe that? It helps to gift wrap it beautifully.

[Poche]

Originally Posted by Rick Williams

I've always looked at the boat as a magic carpet.

Yep. Get outa town free card. Not free but...you know.