Why We Sail

Sailing is unlike most recreational pursuits, unique even within the boating spectrum itself.  While just about any yahoo can jump into a powerboat, open up the throttle and instantly become a menace on the waterways, sailors must approach things in a more measured and cerebral way.  It’s almost counter-intuitive; going slow requires a greater degree of skill and expertise than ripping across the water at teeth-rattling speeds.

So, given that it takes a lot more skill, brain power and patience to spend the better part of a day traveling just 50 miles, a fair question would be, “Why?”  Why would one invest hundreds of hours to simply become moderately proficient at the skills required to propel a 10 ton fiberglass bucket using only the wind?  Why would one learn an entirely foreign language, spend inordinate amounts of time learning to tie knots and waste dozens of perfectly good weekends beseeching the skies to either send some wind or take some away?

Well, if you’ve never been on a broad reach on a smooth sea, with the sunlight twinkling off the water where the only sounds are the wind in the sails and the water on the hull, it’s gonna be a little hard to explain.  For all of the challenges that sailing presents; the learning curve, the incredible ability of Mother Nature to position the wind to blow from exactly the direction you had planned on sailing (or not at all), there is an emotional chord that is strummed when one does achieve that perfect broad reach on that perfect autumn day.  So far as this sailor knows, there is no other way to achieve this vibrational harmony with Nature, this alignment of Spirit with Source, than to be on the helm at that perfect moment.

If you have held the wheel in your hands on that day, you are no doubt nodding your head in agreement, possibly even grinning as you recall this moment in your mind.  If you have yet to experience this exhilaration for yourself, mere words just cannot convey the essence of that moment properly.  You’re gonna have to find yourself a sailor and see for yourself.  Don’t worry, you won’t have to learn the foreign language or understand the dynamics of lift to attain the Nirvana Moment.  However, be forewarned; should you be on the helm for the perfect broad reach on that perfect autumn day, you may find the question of “why” has been perfectly answered.  No words required.