My Errant Mind

Drinking some coffee and letting my mind wander after having finished up a book on sailing, I started browsing some portals offering sailboats for sale. I thought I would share a couple of the sites I found, just in case anyone else out there is having similar thoughts.

Of course, I have to throw in an anecdotal tie-in, so I’ve included an account of why I am writing and reading about sailing. It ought to be good for a laugh.

Sparking An Interest In Sailing

My sailing experience is quite limited, but the particular incident that sparked my long-term desire to sail was a brief afternoon spent sailing in the Persian Gulf. An army buddy and I took a boat out for the day after a brief rundown on how to sail…in Arabic, by the boat’s owner.

No, we neither one of us spoke Arabic, but we both had experience in kayaks, canoes, power boats of all sorts—heck, even bumper boats and paddle boats. I had even been on a sailboat once.

How hard could it be, right?

Well, tacking against the wind is harder than it looks for the untrained sailor. It doesn’t help when you’ve been hit in the head by a boom that swivels suddenly when turning into the wind the first time. I think the fellow renting us the boat for the day was trying to explain that when he kept tapping his head with his open palm now that I think on it.

Or, perhaps he was telling us we were out of our minds because the extremely heavy wind out of the north that day wasn’t going to make a pleasant experience?

We nearly gave up the idea of making it back, thinking it might be easier simply to sail with the wind to the United Arab Emirates. At worst, we figured surely we were skilled enough we could hit Oman before facing the prospect of our next meal being in the Maldives (which really wouldn’t have been all that bad, come to think of it).

We weren’t thrilled with the idea of doing any of those things in our little 14 or 15 feet of day-fun, though.

Well, we figured out (sort of) how to tack upwind. We even made it back to within sight of land—and the right patch of it, where we launched from. After a half dozen or so attempts at heading north of our destination and trying to navigate in, the wind and our skills simply wouldn’t allow us to get back to dry land.

Finally, I just jumped overboard in the chest deep water, grabbed a rope tied to the bow, and began pulling us in while my buddy brought the sail down and got control of the boom. It was a really good workout, in retrospect.

The Plan Begins To Form

While it sounds like a horror story, the truth is, it sparked an interest I have had in sailing ever since. Alas, it seems something always came along to distract me from pursuing it and other dreams and hobbies. However, they’re all ex’s now, and I’m thinking once again about sailing and diving and how fun it would be just sailing around the world and eating freshly speared fish for lunch.

So, I’ve begun planning. I think I may even have a potential and willing accomplice or two.

I just recently read Cruising 101, Avoiding the Pitfalls of Paradise by Amy Sullivan and Kevin Donnelly. Now, I’m currently reading Gypsy Moth Circles the World, by Sir Francis Chichester which is great.

Additionally, I have been browsing the following sites, making notes, getting ideas, and researching. If there are others out there thinking similar thoughts about sailing, and you’re interested in learning what sort of boats are out there and what they cost, these links should help. There also a couple of purely inspirational links.

Enjoy…

Sailing boats for sale…

• BoatTraderOnline.com
• Sailboats4Sale.com
• SailboatListings.com
• SailingTexas.com
• SailboatOwners.com

Inspirational sailing ideas, boats and stories…

• Summer Sailstice — sail locally, celebrate globally.
• YachtCouncil.com
• CruiseNews.net’s Voyage Logs — lots of stories of voyages.
• BoatOwners.com’s Sailing Stories — more stories!
• Boating Around The World: a 1000 day sailing trip — a couple in love.