Sail Cayman has been pondering a blog topic for a couple of weeks now. We ran aground, so to speak, but then we found this quote by none other than J.F. Kennedy (or his legendary speech writers if you choose to be pedantic) and Sail Cayman came up with a topic called “Sailing Thoughts”. JFK really had a way with words…and women, but let’s just stick to sailing in this blog OK?
“I really don’t know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it is because in addition to the fact that the sea changes and the light changes, and ships change, it is because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it we are going back from whence we came.”
J. F. K.
It is this quote that prompted Sail Cayman to Google more sailing thoughts and here they are. Sail Cayman pays homage right here to the sailors/writers and adventurers, both men and women, who pinned these quotes as we think that they have nailed the feeling, the awesomeness and the pure wonder of sailing better than Sail Cayman ever could.
“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than those you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Mark Twain
“A bad day sailing is 100 times better than a good day at work” Anonymous
“Sailing requires the management of all the systems on the boat, plus all the controls on the boat, while assessing the weather and navigation. It’s planning everything to a fine level of detail and making the required adjustments all at the same time things are changing” Anonymous
“If you want to know what sailing is all about, just get in the shower with your clothes on, turn on the cold water, and eat a soggy peanut butter sandwich. While you’re doing all this, drop a $100 down the drain every 2 minutes” Anonymous
“Now I’m sick of a life that is too complicated. I want to wear shorts year round. I want to swim in the morning. I want to fish. I want to shop for fresh food in small markets. I don’t want to work my butt off to make payments and then pay for insurance and cleaning and maintenance and upgrades for things that I really don’t need to survive. I am cold and tired and I need a break. I don’t want my job anymore. I want to laugh with my family in the sun. I want freedom.” Anonymous
“If a man is to be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most”
E.B. White
“Would you get bored of cruising?” One of the replies stuck out in my mind. The poster said “I got bored…but it took six years. Best six years of my life! Nothing has to be forever to be worth doing!” In my mind that is perfect! Anonymous
“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.”
William Arthur Ward
“How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when clearly it is Ocean.”
Arthur Clarke
“Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk.”
Sir Francis Chichester
“Sailors, with their built in sense of order, service and discipline, should really be running the world.”
Nicholas Monsarrat
“To deal with men is as fine an art as it is to deal with ships. Both men and ships live in an unstable element, are subject to subtle and powerful influences, and want to have their merits understood rather than their faults found out […] After all, the art of handling ships is finer, perhaps, than the art of handling men.”
Joseph Conrad
“I was born in the breezes, and I had studied the sea as perhaps few men have studied it, neglecting all else.”
Joshua Slocum
“Borders? I have never seen one. But I have heard they exist in the minds of some people.”
Thor Heyerdahl
“Wherever we want to go, we go. That’s what a ship is, you know. It’s not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails; that’s what a ship needs. But what a ship is…what she really is…is freedom.” Jack Sparrow
And so it is with these profound sailing thoughts that Sail Cayman leaves you…but just before you go, we would like to put one last thought into your mind; “When will you make it your turn to take yourself sailing, to taste just a small thrill of adventure, to feel the wind in your hair, to look up and see the sails full of wind, to steady yourself against the keeled-over yacht, to hear the ropes as they run through the rigging and then to turn your face to the sun and know that you are EXACTLY where you want to be?….When?
Sailcayman 