And Now For Your Viewing Pleasure...

Every once in awahle I come across a video that inspires, thrills or informs me, maybe it will do the same for you.

How To Get an 85ft Mast Under a 65ft Bridge.

The Doctor is In...Part I

Why sail?

Ask a hundred different sailors and you'll get a hundred different answers. For some it's a quest for knowledge, for others it's the search for adventure and for others it's the drive of competition.  Challenging, solitude, ability, wonder, escape, acceptance, self-satisfaction, the list could go on and on and I'm sure for most it is a combination of some or all the things listed.

But I can only speak for myself.  When I look back to when I began to where I am now in my sailing and my life, the essence of sailing has had different meanings.  As I grew as a person, as a way of thinking and living in the world, my sailing grew and reflected that time in my life.

Let's Take a Ride On a Watermelon Seed!

I came across this the other day and thought I'd share. I love all the information that is laid out in the video and I'm sure most of you who read my writings already have some reasonable understanding about the topic at hand, but the truth is my sailing gets defined at the 8:50 mark of the video. Enjoy!

How to Ride a Watermelon Seed

"An intuitive feel and a practical understanding", that has to be the yin and yang definition of most sailors. Using that hard practical understanding of our world and how it works in order to achieve the emotional and spiritual release from that same world. 

A Boat By Any Other Name Is Still a...

When we first bought our Helms we were immediately faced with a major dilemma, one that supersedes any other problems no matter how large or how small that may have been discovered. Bottom paint, who cares, standing rigging, so what, running rigging, maybe later. We need to get down into the meat and potatoes...what to name the boat.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, and you would know this had you been following along and paying attention, when we bought the boat the previous owners had named it Doo-Dah. I have to say right up front, I completely respect a persons' right to name their boat anything they like. It's a lot like naming your children. With all things being equal I think we can all agree that discretion needs to applied in two major areas of our lives, when deciding on names and tattoos. But I digress.

Sometimes You Meet People in the Strangest Places

Lisa and I went sailing yesterday. I know, big deal you say, those two nuts are always going sailing. Yesterday wasn't anything but unusual...except one thing.

The winds were light when it existed at all and it was hot. I mean it was middle of August in Columbia, South Carolina hot. Columbia is so hot that the official logo is "Columbia Famously Hot" . Pretty much all we did for the first couple of hours was float and sweat, or in Lisa case, perspire. I spent my time trying to coax the sails to capture any faint breeze all the while that breeze clocked around the compass teasing me into submission. I finally just let the

Let's Take This Baby Out For a Spin!

Lisa and I were almost at the lake. We eased the car down the gravel road, weaving our way between trees until Norma's home came into view. We were both excited and nervous because we were about to take the Helms out for a test sail.

We exited the car and moved down the hill toward Norma's home. We walked around the porch and knocked  on the door and were immediately greeted by the yapping of two dogs that were, of course, the joy of Norma's life. This was obviously going to be a big event as Norma had asked her son to be on hand just to make sure everything went smoothly. No one was really sure when the last time was that the boat had been taken out, but it was generally agreed that it had been at least a year or two. Norma had two new batteries installed and the engine had cranked smoothly, which is a good sign. 

Lisa and I boarded the boat and got halfway situated. The motor turned over right on cue and I revelled in the staccato chug of the two cylinder diesel.  We made all the lines ready (that means we untied it from the dock for all you landlubbers) pushed it into gear, gave it a little gas and we eased out into long slue where Norma's home sat. It was magnificent, guiding that boat toward the main body of the lake. The sun was bright, the air was crisp. I was captain of my ship, master of my domain... for about five minutes.

The Storm Before the Calm

I wanted to back up just a bit and give you a little more filler as to how we arrived at our boat purchasing dilemma. 

As I alluded to previously, with Lisa's urging, I found a place at Lake Murray, SC that would not only rent a sailboat to qualified individuals but will also teach you the finer points on how to handle a boat. 

It was sometime in October of 2011 on a Saturday afternoon when Lisa and I pulled into Lanier Sailing at Southshore Marina in Lexington. I had called ahead and talked to Paula, a sweet helpful woman who was more than happy to make all our reservations and told us where we needed to be and who we needed to talk to when we got there.  

We arrived at the appointed time and were warmly greeted by Brian the proprietor and as it just so happened was married to Paula.  It always amazes me how those things work out. 
Just so you know and you want be shocked if you ever meet him, Brian has a British accent. So please don't gawk and stare like I did and in case you didn't know speaking slower and louder doesn't help the conversation go any smoother.