Grab a chance...

pugwash

pugwash

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"Grab a chance and don't be sorry for a might have been...." This phrase more than any other encapsulates for me the spirit of a sailing life. The Hiscocks had it carved into the mainbeam of Wanderer III. I always thought it came from "We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea" but when I hunted through the book the other day I couldn't find it, though Imight have missed it.

Do you know where it comes from?

For that matter, what other inspiring epigrams could be trotted out to justify this silly business of paying a fortune to be wet, sick and frightened under sail?

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You were right, it is from 'We didn't mean to go to sea' (which I think is probably Arthur Ransome's best Swallows and Amazons book). It's at the bottom of page 31 of the paperback edition. Titty is trying to persuade their mother to let them go sailing on the Goblin with Jim Brading.

There is no logical justification for going sailing. We're all completely mad. Having said that, Jim Wharram was right when he said (he might have been quoting Wakeman or someone else) 'there are sea people and those shore b******ds'. Unfortunately, with the explosion of interest in yachting, there are far too many shore b*****ds in boats nowadays.

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Re: Grab a chance... declined!

"the North Pole is not really worth having, otherwise some Scotsman would have, long ago, gone up there and grabbed onto it"

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Another good Ransome one (again, a phrase of Commander Walker's, who along with Captain Flint came up with most of the good 'uns) is "Better drowned than duffers, if not duffers, won't drown".

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.crystaltwo.co.uk/>Crystal II in Pictures</A>
 
Commencing a voyage.....

"Our voyage hade commenced, and at last we were away, gliding through the clean water, past the reeds. Care was lifted from our shoulders, for we were free from advice, pessimism, officialism, heat and hot air."
-K. Adlard Coles



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Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.

Never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes.

<hr width=100% size=1>Sail the Se7en seas...
 
Carpe deum - Seize the day

Nil disperandum - Never dispair, my father's motto

Mediocria firma - the middle way is the best, alma mater motto,

Sod off you blue flagged bas***d, Solent sailor's greeting

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Sieze what?

Isn't it Carpe Diem? Probably wrong (I'm a long time out of school) but I think you may have been exhorting us to sieze a God. Which, come to think of it, may not be such a bad idea in some nautical situations.

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On page 24 of my paperback version of We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea ,Titty says"Daddy always says "Grab a chance and you won't be sorry for a might-have-been"".John replies "We'd learn an awful lot"
Excuse the typing but I don't know how to do single inverted commas !

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Not quite an epigram

but in the pre-GPS era, when navigating, a line from WS Gilbert used to rise to my lips whenever I poked my head out of the hatch and saw cold, grey, featureless sea and a cold, grey, featureless helmsperson:

"What a pleasant spot! I wonder where we are!"

(The Pirates of Penzance)

<hr width=100% size=1>Que scais-je?
 
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