The Call of the Sea

“Since ancient times, a handful of men have been drawn to the inaccessible horizon.”

- Eric Tabarly, yachtsman

My wife and I recently attended a seminar on blue water sailing in Annapolis. Presented by the World Cruising Club it was designed to cover the nuts and bolts of crossing oceans. The World Cruising Club sponsors the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC), which started as a way for cruising sailboats to cross the Atlantic Ocean with some degree of safety. It has become a way for hundreds of sailboats every year to cross the Atlantic (ARC, ARC+, or ARC Europe), but also to circumnavigate with the ARC World. The daylong session was excellent, covering everything from sail types to emergency equipment and legal/insurance considerations.

The attendees ranged in age from late 40’s to early 70’s, largely couples, and all had the same dream: to sail across an ocean… I think there were three categories among these dreamers: people who will cross an ocean, people that want to, and people that missed their chance through age, health, or hesitation. And it didn’t matter where you were in this, because it was all the same dream. My wife and I had found our tribe.

I found out quite recently that there are people, most people it would seem, who are terrified of the thought of sailing out beyond sight of land. When we were preparing for sailing in the Grenadines, I mentioned to one of our friends that we might lose sight of the islands and there was real fear in their eyes. It never occurred to me that this was a fear that someone could have; to not be drawn to the horizon and find the serenity at sea that I do was unthinkable to me.

I’ve thought often since then about similarities in peoples across centuries, those like the ancient Greeks or Polynesians, who sailed out upon unknown waters for distant lands. I think I may have more in common with those long dead mariners than with the current society that I live in. I feel the sea in my bones – as does my wife thank God – and once I found the peace that it offers, I’ve never wanted to be anywhere else.

The seminar in Annapolis gave us a solid plan for the future: buy the boat, sail across an ocean and keep going.