Or store those moments for memories?
Issue 87 : Nov/Dec 2012
What does it mean, to “live in the moment?” It sounds laudable. It implies a mind focused on the business at hand and not easily distracted. The shortcoming of living in the moment is just that: it’s only a moment. Yet most sailors live in the recent past, recalling our last really good sail, the way we maneuvered skillfully back into our slip with all our marina neighbors watching, or that brilliant sunset after a perfect day on the water.
That’s not to say that some things shouldn’t be enjoyed in the moment: a delicious meal, the best glass of wine you’ve ever had, or a romantic evening with your longtime mate. The last-mentioned clearly works either way as evidenced by my smile as I write this. Sailors are bombarded by pleasurable sensations that, if we’re alert to them, we should savor, file away, and recall when we need them.
We live within 30 minutes of four of New York’s many Finger Lakes. (Yes, there are more than five, though several qualify only as “pinkie” lakes.) Since the largest, Cayuga, is only 20 minutes away, boating has always been a natural family activity. We taught our kids and others to love and appreciate the beauty of this perfect perennial postcard factory. On warm summer days on the water, I insisted that all on board close their eyes and savor the feelings of warm air and the motion of the lake, the sounds of water lapping and gulls calling . . . with the goal of recalling those moments when the great glaciers reclaim this work of art in February and Margaritaville will again seem very far away. This has worked for me for more than 30 years.
Now, several years later, we have repented from our noisy-boat days and have learned to love sailing. We gave our Thompson 19 to our daughter and her family several years ago after taking a sailing lesson. I had enjoyed watching sailboats on our lakes while trying to give our being on the lake a purpose by motoring to some arbitrary destination. I admired their seeming lack of destination — while they were savoring more of the very things I enjoyed most about boating. We are now on our second sailboat in seven years and still on the learning curve.
Sailing for pleasure
We’ve learned that our role is to be pleasure sailors. I’ve tried to learn all the terminology and all the points of sail, but we still call the halyards and sheets “these” and “those,” and I really don’t care if the telltales don’t fly in formation. I know our marina neighbors watch us come and go for the brief moments of comedy and chaos when we raise and lower the sails, but I’ve noticed that they’re watching from the dock and not from on the water. In fact, we sail more than most of our marina mates, at every opportunity within our limitations, and continue to store up those savor-able moments that only sailors experience.
All sailors know about the “aah moment” when we turn off the motor. That moment never gets old. When I’m at the helm of my Morgan, I like to hold the jibsheet in my hand with one wrap around the winch and a half turn around the cleat, so when the breeze stiffens I can feel the sheet tension in my hand as the boat accelerates. That feeling’s a keeper. I savor the exaggerated feeling of speed when the wind is just right as much as I savor the excited smiles of my first-time passengers. I also love the gurgling from the transom when under way and the change to a rushing sound in a favorable wind. I even savor those days when the breeze is hard to find and then I notice a patch of ripples coming our way, and I watch as our sails fill one more time before we head home.
Pleasures in a bottle
Each boat has its own idiosyncrasies and pleasurable sensations. You know what they are on yours. Store them for when you’re out of the moment.
George Carlin had a funny bit about time. He would say, “Here it comes. Here it is. There it goes . . .” Live only in these moments if you must, but I recommend savoring them, storing them for future reference, and revisiting them when that “one particular harbor” is covered with ice.
Jim and Ruth Kiley sail their Morgan 24 on Cayuga Lake in central New York. As they began sailing only in 2005 with the O’Day 22, they think of themselves as newbies, and admit that their marina neighbors get a kick out of watching their occasional antics.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
