#sailing

They loved the sea. They taught themselves to sail, to navigate and read the weather. Without their mother's knowledge and long before she thought them old enough to sail outside the harbor, they were piloting their catboat all the way to the Isles of Shoals. They were on the return leg of one such excursion when the fickle weather of early spring took an abrupt turn and the sky darkened and the sun vanished and the wind came squalling off the open sea. They were a half mile from the harbor when the storm overtook them. The rain struck in a slashing torrent and the swells hove them so high they felt they might be sent flying--then dropped them into troughs so deep they could see nothing but walls of water the color of iron. They feared the sail would be ripped away. Samuel Thomas wrestled the tiller and John Roger bailed in a frenzy and both were wide-eyed with euphoric terror as time and again they were nearly capsized before at last making the harbor. When they got home and Mary Margaret saw their sodden state she scolded them for dunces and wondered aloud how they could do so well in their schooling when they didn't have sense enough to get out of the rain. ↗

— James Carlos Blake

#sailing #sea #home

Keep your hand on the helm. ↗

— Matthew Goldman

#love

Back on the ferry, I sip some vodka on the rocks and have a chat with God. Me: (desperately) What the *&%$# am I going to do? God: Me: (surprised) Really? After all those Sundays of being a back up singer for Jesus, you got nothing to say? God: Me: (humbly) Help me out here. ↗

— Lexis De Rothschild

#lexis-de-rothschild #novella #sailing #love

We enjoy sailing small boats, two of which I have designed and built myself. ↗

— Martin Ryle

#built #designed #enjoy #i #myself

My goal in sailing isn't to be brilliant or flashy in individual races, just to be consistent over the long run. ↗

— Dennis Conner

#consistent #flashy #goal #individual #just

The men nodded vigorously at me. When they took hold of me and lifted me in their strong arms, I thought nothing of it. I thought they were helping me. I was so full of trust in them that I felt grateful as they carried me in the air. Only when they threw me overboard did I begin to have doubts. ↗

— Yann Martel

#shipwrecks #life

A sailing ship is no democracy; you don't caucus a crew as to where you'll go anymore than you inquire when they'd like to shorten sail. ↗

— Sterling Hayden

#caucus #crew #democracy #go #inquire

I have no interest in sailing around the world. Not that there is any lack of requests for me to do so. ↗

— Edward Heath

#around #i #interest #lack #me

As a cabin boy on a Norwegian sailing ship I earned five kronen a week in addition to my keep. ↗

— Fritz Sauckel

#boy #cabin #earned #five #i

One of the reasons there are so many terms for conditions of ice is that the mariners observing it were often trapped in it, and had nothing to do except look at it. ↗

— Alec Wilkinson

#jargon #sailing #seamanship #age