The best of sailing

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Julia

My little boat and I .....

I agree with all the previous writers in one way or another. I think about sailing frequently through out the day. I read and take courses; also daydream about sailing. It is the only avocation I have stuck with; other interests fade quickly. When I get on a sailboat and she starts to move I feel like it is the first time I sailed; we're off to adventure! Feeling the little ship come alive under my guidance and the forces of nature is thrilling. But, there is more! Learning new skills, testing my knowledge in real life. Having the potential to go somewhere far far away and back again. To pass by wildlife without disturbing them and notice how they are as curious of me as I of them. It is a thrill to watch Dolphins play next to your boat and water fowl follow you across the cove. You feel you belong there. Then to see the sky darken and know you have to make the right decisions; shall we stay and endure? Or run for protection? I make the decision. In my little cabin with the chowder bubbling in the pot, a good drink in hand, my boat safely anchored. I salute the good fortune to have another day to play on this beautiful blue/green planet! What joys and thrills sailing can bring...
 
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Harvey Ibbotson

Thoughts of Parrotheads running through my head

Buffett's tales and songs of fact and fiction got me interested in the caribbean and sailing. I sailed a regatta in St. Martin and fell in love with the ocean. The pure rush I get when the sail fills and propells me through the water. I feel like a child on an amusement park ride. I enjoy the bonding of my crew and I while we are out on the water. You can't beat a day in the boat with good tunes, good drink, good wind, and good friends. Live slow and sail fast.
 
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Mike Smittle

All of the above and more!

The quick quiz should have had one more option, all of the above. There are avid sailors here in the mid-west, believe it or not. The temperature hit 60 degrees here Saturday so we broke the ice at the bottom of the boat ramp and launched a friend's 25 Catalina and had a wonderful sail!
 
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John Kagan

Friends and Family

I was sailing with Friends and Family today on Kerr lake and thats what it is all about. Experiencing the wind and water with people you want to be with! Life doesn't get any better than this. J. Kagan
 
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John Zawacki

Always Loved the water and Boating!

To me, the best part of Sailing is the feeling of getting away from all of the day-to-day hassles we all experience. Life is good, but much better when experienced on a sailboat with the people we really want to be with. The feeling of capturing the wind to power the boat to take us to where we want to go is awesome! Happy sailing. John Zawacki
 

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J Mashburn

The best part is just being on my boat

The best part of sailing for me is just being on my boat whether it is docked or driving it through the waves. It is my piece of the world where I can enjoy being outdoors with nature and have control of my time & do what I want...sail! It is true freedom. J Mashburn 'TIKI' Hunter 146
 
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Rusty Czerwinski

me: it's natural; wife: not sinking!

I have always enjoys sailing and being in and around the water. As an engineer, the technical elegance and skill fascinate me. As an outdoorsman, conservationist and water lover, I relish the mini-vacations with the wind powering us pollution-free through the water taking my family to a cozy swimming/fishing hole. My wife is still getting her sea legs and so she is just happy when we do not capsize and sink!
 
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Dennis

"Lock into irons" ?

Sigurd ... quite a passage you wrote in response to this posting ... poetic in fact ... an excerpt of what you said is ... "The auxiliary starts with the first crank. You ease your dock lines. You are underway! Sliding out into the main channel you begin your planning for raising sails. Sheets and lines are ready, halyard ready....headsail up...power off ... lock into irons...up goes the main, greeting the sun rising in the distance. Creaking and stretching sounds from the rigging....she sounds ready ... fall off to present her quarter beam. ... ". My question is, what does "lock into irons" mean ? Thanks ... Dennis (kingofcary@aol.com)
 
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Thom Hoffman

Extra-sensory Stimulation

Above and beyond all of the intellectual and ego-affirming aspects of sailing, there's a sensory "rush" that is hard to put into words. It's there whenever the air first catches the unfurling jib and we start to heel and in multiple other ways when conditions are in the realm of "good". That rush of the senses coming alive is multiplied ten fold when the fog settles in. Sailing (or worse, motoring) in these conditions requires so much focus and attention that it's almost a treat when the fog moves in. And as enjoyable as that may be on occassion, it's way too exhausting to desire those conditions as a steady diet for sailing. Hard to beat a sunny, warm day with 10-15 knot breezes and the broken waves gurgeling beneath the transom.
 
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LaDonna Bubak - CatalinaOwners.com

I'm home

For me, the feeling of wind and waves is the overpowering motivation but all of the other choices in this quiz apply to me as well. I feel proud when my sails are perfectly trimmed and I'm clipping right along. I feel relieved and not just a little superior when I see traffic jammed up on the freeways while I'm out on the river. I'm at peace being away from the mind-numbing clamor of the phone and TV. All of these things play a role in why I love sailing so much but mostly it's how I feel when I'm out there. That's where I belong and when I raise the sails, I'm home. LaDonna
 
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Sean Herron...herrons@telus.net

Yeah you get that hunting hunted rush...

Hello...Thom, I brought my boat over after purchasing it in a very dense but low fog...stupid, but we knew what to look for and where to steer blind on a compass...so thick and low...you could look up the rig and see sunlit bluish haze...forward nothing...the thing that got us was when we got close to the city beaches...BLAM...BLAM...all these streaks of incredibly intense and narrowly focused light...like some Spielberg flick...we did not know what the hell it was...it was the sun reflecting off the mirrored glass towers of the business district...absolutely the most brilliant thing I have seen in my life time...an experience that would not have been without the boat...without our senses heightened from knowing we were in a dangerous situation but determined to rely on ourselves...LOVED IT... And this was effectively my first, AHEM...motorsail in my new boat... Best of... Cheers... SONG - All the Diamonds in This World - Bruce Cockburn... SH.
 
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Ken George

Competitiveness!!

We usually race our San Juan 21 (when we are home) and cruise the San Juan and Gulf Islands in Washington and British Columbia, respectively. Our racing starts in the spring with a spring series of 4 alternate weekends (always on Sunday), summer then winter series. Spring races start when the lake is still down about 6 feet from the top of the "glory hole" at the dam. The cruising we do is from about June 5 to August or September, depending on how long the cook wants to stay. Usually 6 to 10 weeks. If the weather is really nice it is 10 weeks.
 
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Al Smith

Serenity

There is nothing quite like full sail in a gentle wind, a sunny day, and the soft sound of water rushing past the hull. No matter how bad the week has been, there is real therapy and solace in a gentle sail. If only the rest of the world could experience what we experience while in our boats, perhaps the world would be more content.
 
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Sean Herron...herrons@telus.net

My gods spoke to me...

Hello, Sorry about my drinking but hell...what can YOU really do about it..hehe... I had this thought today while sitting on my tool box wondering what damned farmer had had his hands and had applied his tomato head on what is now my forward hatch...gah what a mess of half wit duct tape and hardware store muck...anyway... Sorry to all the farmers of the world...it's just me, not all of us... This is what I thought...OK...give me a minute...most of our science has been based on observation of the natural world and then the total mucking up of it through our own pathetic attempts at emulation...but there have been moments when we 'as a species' have made shining progress... The Wrights - the birds...the 'KittiHawk'... Goodyear - the whole messy plastics and rubber and petroguck industries, even if it was an accident... Ford and Benz - the horse, cheetah, etc... Sikorsky - who knows where his head was, but it worked in the end... But when you get yourself down to what we now call the modern day sloop, (for simplicity), what example of the natural world is it derived from... I have seen Swans raise their wings in a breeze and go down wind...but never have I seen them twist same off just a bit to beat upwind... I have seen waterbugs on a stick...I have seen what we call Lady Bugs open their outer covers to ride a stick downwind too - brilliant thing I might add... But what in the natural world has grasped the required knowledge through experience and necessity to create a machine, as we have, that we can attach ourselves to that can go upwind...within the parallel mediums of both wind and water... At this time I would like to raise my glass of Glen'...and make a toast to 'THE HUMAN BLOODY RACE of MAMMALS'...it really is something of our own evolution and a response to our own needs...which is another set of essays based on sychological curiousity, economics, and best of all, Ego... I think...I am sure someone can see further than my two feet... Happy New Year...I loved this one... Best of... Cheers... SH.
 
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Sean Herron...herrons@telus.net

Bugger - My vote goes to Julia here...

Hello, I can cook, but I prefer to drink... My vote goes to Julia... I can complicate the whole thing, others can wax romantic... I think she nailed it there... KISS... Best of... Cheers... SH.
 
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Sean Herron...herrons@telus.net

tO MUSH BOOBLIEs

Hello Chris... Think your cable been dug up by a back whore there... Happy happies... SH.
 
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Darline Spring

The whistling sound of the wind in my ear

The best thing that I love about sailing is the "ever so subtle" whistling sound of the wind in my ear. It very soothing.
 
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Dale Wells

Escape the Cocoon

When the warm wind is in your face and the water spray hits as the bow sinks down into the trough of a wave, you are awakened, lost is the world where you are trapped in a cocoon of an office or warehouse. You are close to nature and the stimuli of your surroundings yell to you, "Isn't it good to be alive?"
 
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Jerry Anderson

I Love sailing

I live on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, We sail year around,.. Come see us..
 
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