Sailing Excitement/Fear

[jakeroyd]

Every now and then I think about why i sail.
It seems to be that every time you go out you will be faced with some problems to overcome , sometimes only small ones.
This is part of it for me.
The other is that delightful feeling of equilibrium where all the sailing forces are balanced and the boat forges ahead (a beam reach is best)

However , every time I sail I also feel excited and scared at the same time , a bit like waiting outside the headmasters office or going out with a new girlfriend (both well into the past for me!)

This is at it's maximum when preparing the boat to sail , engine warming up , sail cover off, stuff stowed etc.
Also just when you have cast off.
It's like you have broken with the shore and are free to go.

I think it's this that keeps me doing it time and time again and ai have been sailing (very carefully) for 30 years on and off.

You ?

 

[JimC]

Yes, I think a certain amount of fear, or at least apprehension, is a perfectly natural response to a very powerful element which routinely kills people.

"The old man gave me his view of the use of fear. "A man who is not afraid of the sea will soon be drowned", he said, "for he will be going out on a day he shouldn't, but we do be afraid of the sea and we do only be drownded now and again."
J M Synge quoting a man of Inishmaan before crossing by currach to Inishmore on a rough day. The Aran Islands, 1907."

 

[Fantasie 19]

Every now and then I think about why i sail.
It seems to be that every time you go out you will be faced with some problems to overcome , sometimes only small ones.
This is part of it for me.
The other is that delightful feeling of equilibrium where all the sailing forces are balanced and the boat forges ahead (a beam reach is best)

However , every time I sail I also feel excited and scared at the same time , a bit like waiting outside the headmasters office or going out with a new girlfriend (both well into the past for me!)

This is at it's maximum when preparing the boat to sail , engine warming up , sail cover off, stuff stowed etc.
Also just when you have cast off.
It's like you have broken with the shore and are free to go.

I think it's this that keeps me doing it time and time again and ai have been sailing (very carefully) for 30 years on and off.

You ?

Yup - well said - I was talking to a mate of mine and he said the same... we both feel a sense of apprehension when we go sailing... wears off once we're going, but yes, every time....

 

[johnalison]

I spend all winter fretting about the mass of water that separates me from whatever bit of Europe I wish to visit but as soon as I'm out there my worries disappear. In over forty years cruising I don't think I have ever feared for my life, and I hope, not scared my wife either. This may change one day but I am too much of a coward to want it to happen.

 

[sighmoon]

In a YM interview Robin Knox Johnson's one useful thing he'd never go to sea without was a sense of fear. Wise man.

I agree with johnalison - for me the fear is greatest when I'm not on the boat, and perhaps a little heightened entering or leaving port.

 

[prv]

I definitely get a healthy sense of apprehension as the wind gets higher, the water gets lower, or the rocks/concrete/etc gets closer. Have had the odd sudden "we're a very long way from anywhere if anyone got hurt" thought pass through as well. But I certainly don't set off in fear - if I did, I think I'd stop doing it!

Small, fast motorboats do scare me though (nothing to do with recent events in Cornwall). There's such potential for things to go from happy fun to disaster in a split second. It was OK when all I did was an annual whizz in a RIB at the Boat Show - it's a big new boat and the driver seems to know what he's doing. But when my mate Chris got his hands on a small, old, decrepit RIB I was always worried that the engine would break off the transom and join us in the boat, or that through lack of experience (though never reckless) he'd cause us to flip or jump too high and break up on impact.

Pete

 

[KellysEye]

Jane and I always got nervous before a passage, even after 10,000 NM, but as soon as we cast off it went, I don't really understand why.

 

[[70521]]

Just a MASSIVE respect for mother nature and knowing you are just a very, very small part of it.

 

[aslabend]

Is worry the same as fear? I tend to worry a lot when I'm preparing to go to sea but I'd not class it as fear really. If I was scared, I'd probably never get out of port. I've certainly had times when I've been sailing that I've had a fair dose of trepidation when things don't seem to be going my way but I think I'd only really feel fear if things got so bad that I'd run out ways to feel I can help to control the situation (or give the illusion of control maybe).

I met three sailors in Stornaway a few year ago who were coming back from Iceland who got clobbered when a low pressure squeezed up to a high generating storm force winds. They tried heaving to (till the mizzen shredded, streaming warps (they just washed back aboard) and ended up just going to bed for a couple of days while they lay a-hull(?). To run out of options like that would terrify me. We had 48knots of wind at the top of lock we were sheltering in so god knows what they got.

 

[maby]

I could certainly do without the fear! I've never been in fear of my life - we avoid those sorts of conditions - it's usually fearing for my gelcoat!

 

[Seajet]

I think the - very significant - fear is of cocking things up, not actually being killed / drowned etc.

I have panic attacks the night and morning before sailing, but once on a boat feel completely at home.

 

[Pmkc]

This an important issue for me right now.

I am in my third year of owning a yacht, although its only 27ft built in 1970s I have developed a growing anxiety about taking the boat out. What is so puzzling for me is that since I have owned the boat I have sailed singlehanded on most trips without any serious incidents. I did not manage to sail much last year due to weather and other reasons so I guess lack of experience is the main problem. I think the main concern for me is not having the ability to control the boat under sail alone, always thinking what would I do if the engine packed up now!

I do not have any sailing friends or relatives to act as mentors and coming to sailing at age 55 I seem to find everyone I meet has been sailing since about 10 years of age.

Anyway I am now wondering if I should just sell the boat and be done with it.

 

[ProDave]

My "sailing fear" is only when single handing in my own little boat.

And that is taking the sails down at the end of a trip. Particularly if the wind has blown up somewhat since I started.

That's the only time things seem to go "less than perfect" when single handed there's a lot to do and you need to be in different places to do it, while still keeping control of the boat.

I don't have this fear sailing as crew on other people's boats.

 

[Cloona]

This an important issue for me right now.

I am in my third year of owning a yacht, although its only 27ft built in 1970s I have developed a growing anxiety about taking the boat out. What is so puzzling for me is that since I have owned the boat I have sailed singlehanded on most trips without any serious incidents. I did not manage to sail much last year due to weather and other reasons so I guess lack of experience is the main problem. I think the main concern for me is not having the ability to control the boat under sail alone, always thinking what would I do if the engine packed up now!

I do not have any sailing friends or relatives to act as mentors and coming to sailing at age 55 I seem to find everyone I meet has been sailing since about 10 years of age.

Anyway I am now wondering if I should just sell the boat and be done with it.

no just keep doing modest trips

 

[mdonnelly]

Pmkc, know how you feel. First boat was a Leisure17 in which I learned the basics. Was always accompanied so no concerns until I moved marina. Spent a couple of months literally terrified of being solely responsible and going out was always stressful and finally decided to sell the boat. However, thought about what it was that actually made me buy the boat; the sight of a yacht, in full sail, sailing with the elegance of a swan. It was my dream and I literally cried when I thought it was only ever going to be a dream. One day I went to the marina, stood for ages thinking and then fired up the outboard, cast off the lines, pushed boat off pontoon and jumped on! After a year of stressful boat ownership had my first ever solo sail. My heart never stopped pounding the whole time but I was delighted. I've been sailing now for 16 years and still get a little anxious. However, it only makes me more careful and the joy it gives me is immense. Basically it took years for my confidence to develop so please persevere, it will be worth it.

 

[iain789]

Exultation is the going
Of an inland soul to sea,
Past the houses—past the headlands—
Into deep Eternity—

Bred as we, among the mountains,
Can the sailor understand
The divine intoxication
Of the first league out from land?

Emily Dickinson

 

[JimC]

... I've been sailing now for 16 years and still get a little anxious. However, it only makes me more careful and the joy it gives me is immense. Basically it took years for my confidence to develop so please persevere, it will be worth it.

+1, except in my case I might use a stronger expression than "a little anxious" at times and I've been sailing for more than 16 years. Don't be in too much of a hurry to pack it in Pmkc

 

[Sinnot]

It's funny I thought it was just me. Last year I spent about 5 months sailing mostly singlehanded. This year when I first got down here it hit me and I was a bit reluctant to leave my berth. But once I cast off the lines all theses fears went. I guess it's a good idea to have "what do I do if..... " in the back of your mind.

 

[colvic987]

I tend to get anxious the older I get, just hope I don't get a massive pang of 'harbour rot'

 

[Laundryman]

The anxiety before sailing has been mentioned many times before and I have butterflies before each departure. Pmck, I've been through the same emotions and I have a belt and braces approach to everything on my boat. Fitting a small outboard bracket to the transom has meant that twice I've had inboard engine problems and both times my little outboard has brought me home. If you update your forum profile, you might find someone nearby for moral support/ sailing buddy. Lots of us sail single handed but it doesn't have to be a lonely hobby.