Boat Bits: A brief pause for some reflection...

This reminds me of a fable, good to have Grayson back in the mix, and boy, Dmitri is really going to piss some folks off with this one (the sad part is that he's making all kinds of sense)...

There was a point in time when, if you asked me what I did I'd have been hard pressed whether to answer surfer, climber, or sailor. Now, on the face of it, those are not altogether different, sharing a lot of the same mindset and baggage...

On the other hand, there is also something of a gulf that I've never been able to quite sort out to my satisfaction.

Surfing and climbing, in the way back when, were always a bit more cerebral and self-exploratory than sailing if the surfing, climbing, and sailing press/literature were anything to go by.

Which is not to say that sailing cannot be the sort of self-searching eye opening experience that climbing and surfing are. Just that the published and media coverage of sailing displays a much shallower experience than it really is.

Personally I blame the gear factor...

You buy a couple of boards and you can go off and surf, buy some climbing shoes, a rack of hardware and a rope and you're all set, but to sail/cruise it's a monster of a consumer minefield and, take my word for it, minefields always take their toll and too much stuff gets in the way of paying attention to who you are and why.

I don't know about you but it's hard to find a lot of insight into the nature of things if you're obsessing about the state of your watermaker, what that dirty fuel is going to do to your engine, and whether you made the right choice when you decided on hydraulic or electric furling system.

All that stuff insulates you from the important, well, you know... stuff!

There also seems to be a tunnel vision thing where sailing is concerned, that writing about sailing means mostly writing about boats, gear, hardship, and superficial tourism. With that sort of editorial slant there's not a whole lot of room for those mind-altering insights found on the dog watch or heretical views...

Of course, there's always the exception, Moitessierand Chilesspring to mind, but it really is something of a wasteland if you want to get past the surface of what sailing is really all about.

On a brighter note, Tad Roberts just introduced me to an awesome site, "Where is Tara Tari", which would have fit right in to Mountain Gazette during its golden years and, in the readers' parlance, I have not been able to put it down...

So there is hope!