This month’s raft-upquestion is a good one, if a little self-indulgent;) Was I a sailor or a
traveler first? Jane asked us to take a stand so I will, sort of.:
The answer is cruiser—I
think I’ve always been a cruiser.
There is a chance I
may not have been either and sailor or traveler. But when I was five and was walking the docks
at Comox Harbour with my dad I discovered a
different future. Most of the dock was taken up by fishing boats; their wooden
hulls bright white, their trim painted in jaunty contrast. Here and there were
little sailboats. It was those we stopped for most often. “Sweet lines,” I
remember hearing, when we stood in front of one just a little longer than all
the rest.
The one with sweet
lines seemed nice, but there was a different boat that really caught my eye:
Strong and long and dark, where the others were light and graceful. I sounded
out the hailing port as a question for my dad: Hawaii. With his explanation I
understood that small boats could cross oceans. And as pretty as my little town
was; with her mountains, winding river, white sand beaches and dense forests, I
knew in that moment I was destined to leave.
 |
| 17 years ago we set sail on this little boat-- after eight years away we came home with a baby |
I’m not the first in
my family to suffer from wanderlust. Family genealogists place Alexander
Selkirk (the ‘real’ Robinson Crusoe) in our lineage. But no one else in the
family (at least in the modern bunch-I’m a 6th generation Vancouver
Islander) is a sailor and most are confirmed homebodies. That day at the dock
was more than likely the result of my mum kicking me and my dad out of the
house so she could vacuum, than any real desire on my dad’s part to look at
boats.
But the result—the
planting of a dream—is one that most sailors can relate to. Every cruiser (and
wannabe) can tell you about a moment, a book, a boat, or a sailor who opened up
the world of possibility to them.
Where Did Cruisers Come From?
Knowing that cruising exists is different than packing up your life and moving
aboard a boat though. And I wonder if part my answer lies in the fact that so many
of the cruising pioneers have Canadian roots: Joshua Slocum who circumnavigated
the world between 1895 and 1898; John Voss who sailed
the Tilikum from Vancouver
to England in 1901; Miles and
Beryl Smeeton; Larry Pardey, who along with his wife Lin taught us simple boats
and small budgets weren’t a barrier to cruising; the Copeland family, who
inspired couples with children to set off.
Or perhaps my
inspiration came on a school visit to the Maritime
Museum in Victoria when I saw the Tilikum on display. Maybe seeing this small voyaging boat somehow
colluded with my glimpse of that first tantalizing boat from Hawaii--and rather than setting off on a
practical path (which would eventually result in a land-based home and a decent
retirement fund) I was compelled to follow in Voss’s rather riskier wake.
I might
credit Voss. But Voss credits Joshua Slocum’s three
year circumnavigation for prompting his own 40,000 mile trip. Slocum set off
alone from Boston
in 1895 in Spray, a “rotting old
oyster sloop” that he had rebuilt. His achievement, becoming the first man to sail around the world
single handed (and for the fun of it) brought him fame. And the book he wrote, Sailing
Alone Around the World, encouraged throngs of small-boat
voyagers and adventurers to set sail.
I went on to learn to sail. Initially it
was just so I could race. Then I learned more so I could teach. But the plan
was always to follow in the wake of those early sailors—to ghost into a village
at dawn; to meet people in their homes, not at tourist attractions. I never
actually left my little slice of the North
West until I sailed off. The furthest I’ve ever
travelled has been while under sail.
Dana asks if my
view on travel and sailing has changed at all since I started? My answer to
this is no, it’s as magical as I expected. And yes, I could never have imagined
what it would truly be like to be on a small boat in the middle of the ocean
before we actually did it.
Travelling this way has always been all I ever hoped for and now it's even more as it expands to encompass our daughter.
Check out how the
other raft-up members answered and are answering this question
Behan www.sv-totem.com
Jessica mvfelicity.blogspot.com
Sams warehouse and Crazy clarkes have the syrup for $3.99 a bottle, it is Steves, which I think is the same brand as Aldi,
ReplyDeleteMargaret, I LOVE you. I think I need to go shopping again:)
ReplyDeleteStill having fun I see.
ReplyDeleteTRAVELER for me, all the way. I had always wanted to do more exploring, but it never occured to me, that a sailboat would be such an amazing way to travel. But once John planted the idea and I learned the difference between sheet and halyard...SAILOR started to become a big reason to release the dock lines!
ReplyDeleteAs for me, I was a traveler first, just wanting to see the beauty of the waters. Then I became a sailor because it became a way of life.
ReplyDeleteSo many people seem to be travellers first--some fall in love with the sailing ascpect and others endure it. For me their so entwined it's hard to think of them as either/or experiences. Cool to contemplate though.
ReplyDeleteI began as a traveler, a packpacker if you will, but voyager is how I like to see myself - I'm with you: The sailing and the traveling is so intertwined, they're no longer separate... Lovely piece of writing by the way...
ReplyDeleteAhem, ignore the poor grammar."are" so intertwined
ReplyDeleteI don't critique gramar;) Or spelling... 'ascpect'
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ReplyDeleteHawaii
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