There
is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much worth doing as
simply messing about in boats. In or out of 'em, it doesn't
matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it.
Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive
at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or
whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and
you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it
there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you
like, but you'd much better not.
Spoken by Ratty to Mole in
Wind in the Willows a
children's book by Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932).
The
pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to
change; the realist adjusts the sails.
- William Arthur Ward
I cannot not sail.
The lovely thing about cruising
is that planning usually turns out to be of little use.
- Dom Degnon
There is nothing more enticing,
disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea.
- Joseph Conrad
To be a true explorer is to carry
on your exploration even if it takes you to a place you didn't
particularly plan to go to.
Life is wild. Love is wild.
And God is absolutely wild.
- Osho
Passion: the ability to
feel at peace and intense at the same time.
- Anand
Oh, recluse, if you aspire to
paradise, go fast to that place where dwells the woman of lust.
- Kuttni Mahatyan
We must remember that magic is
basically the development of a psychic faculty which enables a
person to see below the surface of normal reality.
- Colin Wilson
You know you're a cruiser when:
Your wife got a new vacuflush head for Valentine's Day and she's
ecstatic!
- Rich Boren
I find that the great thing in
this world is not so much where we stand, as in what
direction we are moving.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
Work is the curse of the boating
class.
As above, so below. (my
favorite of mine)
...and the day came when the risk
it took to remain tightly closed in a bud was more painful than
the risk it took to bloom.
- Anais Nin
Life is about more than just
maintaining oneself, it is about extending oneself.
Otherwise, living is only not dying.
- Simone DeBeauvoir
The days pass happily with me
wherever my ship sails.
- Joshua Slocum
At sea, I learned how little a
person needs, not how much.
- Robin Lee Graham
Wind is to us what money is to
life on shore.
-
Sterling Hayden
If you are going to do something,
do it now. Tomorrow is too late.
- Pete Goss
Do or do not. There is no try.
- Yoda
If you can’t repair it, maybe it
shouldn’t be on board.
- Lin and Larry Pardey
…surely these victims of the
sea…had rushed willingly down the hills to the water, only to
find themselves caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Who
should judge whether they were there for the wrong reason?
- John Rousmaniere (Fastnet,
Force 10)
And after two days in
civilization we realized we could never stay for long and
started to plan our next adventure.
- Bob Bitchin (Letters from the
Lost Soul)
The planning stage of a cruise is
often just as enjoyable as the voyage itself, letting one’s
imagination loose on all kinds of possibilities. Yet
translating dreams into reality means a lot of practical
questions have to be answered.
- Jimmy Cornell (World
Cruising Handbook)
Twenty years from now you will be
more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the
ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the
safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover.
- Mark Twain
If you can’t tie a knot, tie a
lot.
- Motto of a representative
of the Winslow Liferaft Company
Not all who wander are lost.
- JRR Tolkien
There are three sorts of people; those who are alive, those who
are dead, and those who are at sea.
- Old Capstan Chantey attributed to Anacharsis,
6th Century BC
Some years ago - never mind how
long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and
nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would
sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.
- H. Melville, Opening Line from
Moby Dick
Now - bring me that horizon.
The last line from
Pirates of the
Caribbean:
It's out there at sea that you
are really yourself.
- Vito Dumas
A tourist remains an outsider
throughout his visit; but a sailor is part of the local scene
from the moment he arrives.
-
Anne
Davison
Men in a ship are always looking up, and men ashore are usually
looking down.
-
John
Masefield
I can't wait for the oil wells to
run dry, for the last gob of black, sticky muck to come oozing
out of some remote well. Then the glory of sail will return.
-Triston Jones
Confronting a storm is like
fighting God. All the powers in the universe seem to be against
you and, in an exraordinary way, your irrelevance is at the same
time both humbling and exalting.
-
Franciose
LeGrande
It's remarkable how quickly a
good and favorable wind can sweep away the maddening
frustrations of shore living.
- Earnest K. Gann
I want a boat that drinks 6, eats
4, and sleeps 2.
- Earnest K. Gann
If a man is to be obsessed by
something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a
bit better than most.
- E. B. White
Ships are the nearest things to
dreams that hands have ever made.
- Robert N. Rose
It isn't that life ashore is
distasteful to me. But life at sea is better.
-
Sir
Francis
Drake
The only way to get a good crew is to marry one.
-
Eric
Hiscock
Only two sailors, in my
experience, never ran aground. One never left port and the other
was an atrocious liar.
-
Don
Bamford
I wanted freedom, open air and
adventure. I found it on the sea.
-
Alaine
Gerbault
To be successful at sea we must
keep things simple.
- R. D. (
Pete ) Culler
Land was created to provide a place for boats
to visit.
-
Brooks
Atkinson
Never a ship sails out of a bay, but carries my heart as a
stowaway.
- Roselle Mercier Montgomery
Our voyage hade commenced, and at
last we were away, gliding through the clean water, past the
reeds. Care was lifted from our shoulders, for we were free from
advice, pessimism, officialism, heat and hot air.
-
K.
Adlard
Coles
The single commandment of anchoring is "thou shall create
scope."
-
Reese
Palley
