For myself, to sail alone is to go on a spiritual retreat. Silence, reflection and the old familiar routines of a sailor are mixed with the healing power of being close to nature. The wind on sails, a shining sea and the honest boat dance together. They weave their own particular soft sound, a music that you would never mistake for noise. Sailing is like the answer to a question. What was hidden comes into the light; a frown becomes a smile; what is at the center of my being becomes known again; what was lost is found again.
" To sail alone has always had a great appeal to me. Lurking in the dark corridors of my mind has been the idea that out alone on the wide wastes of the sea, it might be possible to lift a corner of the veil that keeps life a mystery to most of us" - Charles Violet
"And Sail, sound and ageless, will float back on the first tide that brings simplicity into confusion, calm into chaos" - Richard Maury
"If anyone was to ask me and I was unguarded enough to reply, I would call it the pursuit of beauty, or truth, and if I were honest I would admit it was largely curiosity, the why and the what and the how at first hand" - Ann Davison
"My dream was coming more and more true. It came to me with suddenness one evening at the wheel, as we slipped silently through the waters of the Koro Sea, bound for Suva. A thin curl of smoke drifted away from our stack into the night, and an appetizing aroma of browning fish came to me as Etera prepared our evening meal. Overhead, the white sails stretched their arms to catch the night wind. They were my sails - my wings - and they had brought me to the sea of my boyhood dreams. I had always planned this, it seemed, but it had been almost too much to hope for. So now my heart was full" - William Albert Robinson
2 comments:
I love sailing too. I tick all those reasons. These days I have to be satisfied with a walk in the bush, which comes near. But, ah, there's nothing quite like sailing.
There is an old saying that: 'Owning a boat is a bit like standing in a very cold shower while ripping up $100 notes'. This is only partly true. Even in the worst of weather, once a safe harbour is reached the after glow is similar to the trampers who find the hut and put their feet up in front of a roaring fire after a good wholesome meal, knowing full well that that days experience was one of a myriad of tramping colours and tones to be experienced.
Post a Comment