Sailing in the Age of Jets

Sailing on the HMS Rose in 1998

One central aspect of the floaty world of boats that has never changed ever since I was a little boy is how amazing it is to carefully guide several tons of boat out of a tight harbor, out into the open ocean where one then raises yards upon yards of white cloth up, up, up to grab the wind right out of sky, to drive that boat and her crew right out through the waves, onward like some great carriage, driven by a large team of horses...and when you are driving and being driven like that, harnessing the heavens and riding the miracle of buoyancy, there is an incredulous and implausible feeling that one could go on and on forever like that and, and, and at the same time, that prudent sailor, romantic that we all are, totally in love with this feeling, knows in the back of our minds that this could also end in a fraction of a second for any number of usual and unusual reasons…and somehow that makes it all even more precious and so we sail happily, even blissfully onward...

Luna Maru in 2004

The first time it happened to me I was about 10 years old when went sailing aboard a family friends 37’ ketch Destiny, out of tiny Pokai Bay on the east side of Oahu.  We headed straight out to sea in water so clear that you could easily see the bottom topography go by as we sailed over the reef.  So vivid was the visual effect that I asked the captain if there was any danger that we might hit the bottom.  He chuckled, gave a brief smile and assured me that there was no danger of that as were were in 60’ of water.  Once I was able to relax and then took the helm I got such a big thrill that I can still feel it today, over half a century later.  And that was just the first time, it got better and better after that.  

Gypsy heading out of Annapolis in 2008

Sailing, besides being good for one’s sprit and soul, it’s also good for our planet and, and, and it’s the safest and most cost efficient way for individuals to cross an ocean even today in the age or rockets and jet planes.  It occurs to me that if the general population wasn’t in such a great hurry to cross oceans that sailing ocean liners would provide the same doubled benefits of being good for our souls and our planet and all things considered, may very well be more economical too.  Moving forward into the future is all well and good, in fact it’s absolutely necessary but that doesn’t mean that we have to do away with ancient, tried and true technologies.   

Sailing Malo off the coast of Oregon in 2016

Speaking of appropriate technologies and our planet, I just saw an encouraging video about some exciting ideas and a new initiative to help deal with the expanding problem of plastic debris that is choking our oceans:

Our living planet is a lot like our bodies in that they both need two essential things to survive; 1) clean water and 2) clean air.  It’s that simple and our oceans are most essential to supporting those two necessities of survival.  Love our planet, respect and tread lightly upon her and we may just survive as a species for a few more centuries, or not…