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The only way to get a good crew is to marry one.
Oct 1, 2025
O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done, / The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won
To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest.
To reach a port we must set sail
For the truth is that I already know as much about my fate as I need to know. The day will come when I will die. So the only matter of consequence before me is what I will do with my allotted time. I can remain on shore, paralyzed with fear, or I can raise my sails and dip and soar in the breeze.
Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.
The chance for mistakes is about equal to the number of crew squared.
The ocean has always been a salve to my soul.
You do not ask a tame seagull why it needs to disappear from time to time toward the open sea. It goes, that's all.
I must go down to the sea again For the call of the running tide It's a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied.
I don't know who named them swells. There's nothing swell about them. They should have named them awfuls.
I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life, To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow rover, And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.
I can remain on shore, paralyzed with fear, or I can raise my sails and dip and soar in the breeze.
If a man is to be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most.
It is not the ship so much as the skillful sailing that assures the prosperous voyage.
The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage. The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting place.
I am a citizen of the most beautiful nation on earth, a nation whose laws are harsh yet simple, a nation that never cheats, which is immense and without borders, where life is lived in the present. In this limitless nation, this nation of wind, light, and peace, there is no other ruler besides the sea.
The sail, the play of its pulse so like our own lives: so thin and yet so full of life, so noiseless when it labors hardest, so noisy and impatient when least effective.
O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done.
Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.
All I ask is a tall ship and a star to sail her by.
Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.
The sea finds out everything you did wrong.
When I forget how talented God is, I look to the sea.
For one thing, I was no longer alone; a man is never alone with the wind-and the boat made three.
Men in a ship are always looking up, and men ashore are usually looking down.
There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea.
The sea is the same as it has been since before men ever went on it in boats.
It's out there at sea that you are really yourself.
I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky; and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.
Sailors, with their built in sense of order, service and discipline, should really be running the world.
Only the guy who isn't rowing has time to rock the boat.
The goal is not to sail the boat, but rather to help the boat sail herself.
The days pass happily with me wherever my ship sails.
At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much.
Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit.
There are only two colors to paint a boat, black or white, and only a fool would paint a boat black.
A small craft in an ocean is, or should be, a benevolent dictatorship.
Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Give him a fishing lesson and he'll sit in a boat drinking beer every weekend.
Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk.
To reach a port, we must sail - sail, not tie at anchor - sail, not drift.
There is little man has made that approaches anything in nature, but a sailing ship does. There is not much man has made that calls to all the best in him, but a sailing ship does.
Sailing a boat calls for quick action, a blending of feeling with the wind and water as well as with the very heart and soul of the boat itself. Sailing teaches alertness and courage, and gives in return a joyousness and peace that but few sports afford.
There is a time in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.
To young men contemplating a voyage I would say go.
It isn't that life ashore is distasteful to me. But life at sea is better.
later down the road of life, i made the discovery that salt water was also good for the mental abrasions one inevitably acquires on land.
When you can’t change the direction of the wind — adjust your sails
And the winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea 'cruising' it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.