Why do you do it?

[Kalinowski]

Now I understand why we enjoy sailing so much. When you're on board, you're in a small cozy place, floating in water, and in constant motion. Sound familiar?

[thomm225]

It just reminded me of another one of the reasons I liked/like sailing so much.

A long day on the boat in that hot sun just sailing or racing along the Pensacola/Ft Walton Beach Gulf Coast back in the 90's was pretty special.

It was before the internet and before most people had cell phones.

The bars were full most every night but especially on the weekends. Live music, etc

The sun had affected everyone and it was quite the party atmosphere.

The only problem was that sometimes the White Flag for the first race on Sunday was at 11 am sharp. (for some distances races it was at 0700)

The 1997 RTI 100 Mile Race out of Ft Walton Beach had 80 boats start and make the turn west at the Sea Buoy coming out Destin Pass. It was a pretty awesome site looking back at all those spinnakers being raised......

[Mike OReilly]

Love some of your stories and the eloquent waxings, but for me my boat is simply a means to an end. It's a lifestyle and a means of travel. It's a home and and shelter. It's a way of living cheaply and lightly on this planet we all share. And it's a way for me to find some level of peace, solitude, simplicity and freedom.

Sailing is an entirely desirable way of living and exploring the world around me. I love to sail, and I love my boat, but it's not the reason I "do it." I sail and cruise b/c it seems to be the best way to live what is important to me: Creativity, Learning, Adventure, Freedom & Cessation.

[Dsqr]

I must go down to the sea again,
to the lonely sea and the sky.
And all I ask is a tall ship,
and a star to steer her by. Sea Fever by John Masefield

I grew up on the Jersey shore and was on boats from age four until my early 30's. I took 30 years off to raise a family, but never forgot "Sea Fever." I bought a Hunter 33.5 six years ago, for myself. Last year my wife discovered her love of sailing and forced me to buy a Hunter 376. It's been the best year of our 25 year marriage and it's only getting better.

That's why we do it.

[a64pilot]

I'm surprised to find there are so many that the boat is a means to an end.
I like and enjoy sailing, but it's not my life passion.
I initially thought about buying a Motorhome and travelling around after Retirement, but having owned a 5th wheel, I knew really all that is, is travelling from one KOA to another.
That is the reason I get so upset about anchoring restrictions, I don't want to sail from one KOA to another.
The allure to me is just heading out, sort of with no real plan, and not having a date when I have to be back.

[Don C L]

My father's dreams, or musings, figured into my longing for the sea as well, though I was deathly afraid of water when I was young due to a little mishap in a swimming pool. My father began rowing dories down the Colorado River and once quipped that he'd really like to row a dory down the west coast, pulling in and camping along the way. On one particular river trip, on the Rio Grande, the temperature dropped to freezing one night and I crawled into the hatch of my 16 foot dory to keep warm. I thought that was pretty nice so I hatched a plan to row a dory down the California coast. Then I realized it was much easier to do it with a sail. About the same time my father took me out on a flight over the Channel Islands and I looked down on opalescent coves, grassy green hills, rocky caves and cliffs, dolphins, whales, seals, sea lions... I was mesmerized, and hooked. I got what, to me at the time, was an enormous yacht, a 24 footer. I dropped out of college to work to support my sailing habit and ten years later I figured I better get a real job and went back to school... but once you have been out there, and you get "it," you'll be back. And you'll talk about this boat or that one, but really you are talking about the longing to be at the helm and having that feeling of bringing enormous white wings to life on a mysterious sea. Thanks akprb!

[JPA Cate]

Ever since I was a little kid, I always wanted to see what was over the next rise, or around the corner. My mother's people were from islands, and there were ship's captains on both sides of the family.

What I like best about our lifestyle: being on my midnight to 6 or 8 watch (it's flexible), and watching the world "wake up". The morning star rises first, then almost imperceptibly, dark lessens a little. Later, you can begin to determine colors in the cockpit... To me, it's magic, and accompanied by entertainment, sometimes the visit of sea birds, or dolphins, sometimes a spectacular sunrise.

I don't get what Mike means by "cessation", is it the time of day when day morphs into night, and it becomes quiet or something else? On passages, it is almost never quiet: there's always some sounds.

Ann

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

Ever since I was a little kid, I always wanted to see what was over the next rise, or around the corner.

What I like best about our lifestyle: being on my midnight to 6 or 8 watch (it's flexible), and watching the world "wake up". The morning star rises first, then almost imperceptibly, dark lessens a little. Later, you can begin to determine colors in the cockpit... To me, it's magic, and accompanied by entertainment, sometimes the visit of sea birds, or dolphins, sometimes a spectacular sunrise.

I don't get what Mike means by "cessation", is it the time of day when day morphs into night, or something else?

Lovely image Ann. I've no where near the experience you have, but I too love the daybreak watch where you get to see the sun's disk crack the watery horizon. But for me, there's nothing finer than being in a remote little anchorage, watching the wildlife and just being part of that peaceful space.

"Cessation" is my way of summing up a desire to stop: To stop rushing around, to stop being too busy to notice the joy and beauty that is everywhere. It's also my way of ceasing to be part of the problems of our times. From over-consumption to financial greed, my society does great harm to the planet we all call home. I don’t have the energy to try and save the world, but I can stop being part of the problem (at least to some degree). It's not really about dropping out and running away. It's about choosing a slightly different path.

[gamayun]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

"Cessation" is my way of summing up a desire to stop: To stop rushing around, to stop being too busy to notice the joy and beauty that is everywhere. It's also my way of ceasing to be part of the problems of our times. From over-consumption to financial greed, my society does great harm to the planet we all call home. I don’t have the energy to try and save the world, but I can stop being part of the problem (at least to some degree). It's not really about dropping out and running away. It's about choosing a slightly different path.

Bravo. I wish there were more like you. Being present and living lightly are surprisingly difficult choices to make. Just ask anyone who has tried to turn off their phone for a day or tried to get rid of their "stuff."

[laika]

Mike always seems to give responses that hit close to home. And as carsten said, the high highs and low lows that, taken in sum, make it such a fulfilling way to live.

I've had no choice in things since I went out cruising with friends in my early twenties. Came back and started figuring out how to make it work more permanently.

I consider a life on the water, even with all the bureaucratic shortcomings you confront along the way, the last true bastion of freedom in the world. At the same time, maybe I'll start dreaming of a slice of land to throw some roots down at some point. Hard to say.

[JPA Cate]

^^^

None of us ever knows what the future holds.... But I won't be surprised if some day we are driven off our boat by either something we anticipated, or didn't.

*

Mike, you can ease yourself so far out of the mainstream of society that every time you go to the grocery store, it's a shock.

Some people seem to have no idea how far they've been sucked into *stuff* addiction! and also fail utterly in discriminating needs and wants.

a.

[rognvald]

"must be a gene hooked trait on my celt and viking genes...." Zeehag


Agreed!
discovermagazine.com/.../13-grandmas-experiences-leave-epige...

[chadc]

Ever since I was a little kid I always wanted to sail all over the world as much as I could now I have my first sailboat and after I spend a few years learning how to be a good sailor and getting a boat better suited to sailing the open ocean I plan on sailing to as many locations as I can before cross over to the other side.

[barnakiel]

It is definitely awesome you can ask a hundred people and get a hundred answers, all of them true.

Now those who claim truth is a fixed and objective concept are in trouble.

b.

[akprb]

Good one barnakiel!

I'm going to sit down shortly and summarize all the great responses.




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