Sailing

Sue told me this would be a boring post and that I had to write the following: "Warning: May Cause Drowsiness."

To which my response is: "Warning, May Cause Happiness due to a Heightened Appreciation for Life."

And now for my post.

There is something about sailing on the ocean that appeals to me. I've always wanted to try it and learn about it. It requires an understanding of weather, physics, navigation, currents, astronomy, and a slew of other things. And it all happens on top of the beautiful ocean. What greater adventure could there be than sailing to some distant destination, the coast slowly moving past you, relying on your skills to keep on course, and all the while being keenly aware that you are just a speck on a massive ocean and at the mercy of the wind? In my opinion, that would be hard to beat.

So I've never sailed but think I love it. In any case, I came across the book "Sailing Alone Around the World" by Joshua Slocum.

During a 3 year period ending in 1898 Slocum became the first person to sail alone around the world and his book details his trip. He even built his own ship, the Spray, a 36-foot sloop. Can you imagine building your own sailboat and then sailing it around the world?!

He set sail from Fairhaven, Massachusetts on April 24, 1895 and wrote this:

"I had resolved on a voyage around the world, and as the wind on the morning of April 24, 1895 was fair, at noon I weighed anchor, set sail, and filled away from Boston, where the Spray had been moored snugly all winter. The twelve o'clock whistles were blowing just as the sloop shot ahead under full sail. A short board was made up the harbor on the port tack, then coming about she stood to seaward, with her boom well off to port, and swung past the ferries with lively heels. A photographer on the outer pier of East Boston got a picture of her as she swept by, her flag at the peak throwing her folds clear. A thrilling pulse beat high in me. My step was light on deck in the crisp air. I felt there could be no turning back, and that I was engaging in an adventure the meaning of which I thoroughly understood."

Here's a picture of the Spray:



His route was interesting. He left Fairhaven and stopped briefly in Nova Scotia (where he was born) then continued on to the Strait of Gibraltar near Spain. At a port there a sailor told him to avoid the western coast of Africa, which was infested with pirates. Slocum took his advice and headed southwest back across the Atlantic, but was chased by pirates nonetheless. Luckily for him the Spray was able to outrun the pirate’s larger, slower boat.

He wrote often about the sea life that accompanied him, mainly dolphins and porpoises. Flying fish would sometimes land on his deck.

He reached the coast of northern Brazil and followed the coast south until he was able to round Cape Horn via the Strait of Magellan. From there he headed east across the massive Pacific. Off the coast of Chile he stopped by the Juan Fernandez Islands, the islands on which Alexander Selkirk (Robinson Crusoe) lived. He visited Samoa and then Sydney. From Sydney he sailed north across the Great Barrier Reef and then headed east again along the northern coast of Australia. At last he made it to Cape Town, South Africa and rounded the “other great Cape”, which left him with one final (his third) crossing of the Atlantic, to Central America and then north through the Caribbean islands and finally back to Massachusetts!

Slocum navigated the entire trip using lunar navigation combined with a method of "dead reckoning" which uses a clock and some calculations. Unbelievable.

That was a bit wordy, but I really got a kick out of his book and wanted to write about it.

In any case, hopefully someday I'll get to learn to sail and take a long trip. You're all invited. We'll learn to navigate the currents and manage the sails. If we're lucky, we'll get lost and end up on the Juan Fernandez Islands.