Sailing

When Eight Bells Toll

Avast, ye Mate! Drop anchor, pour yourself some grog, and I'll spin you a yarn. Eight Bells signals the end of a nautical watch, which could mean, four, eight, or twelve o'clock, AM or PM. In this particular story, it was meant to refer to midnight. Most of my sailing...

O Captain! My Captain!

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still; My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will; ("O Captain! My Captain!" is an extended metaphor poem written in 1865 by Walt Whitman, about the death of American president Abraham Lincoln.) The man...

How tall is water?

Mother, mother ocean, I have heard you call Wanted to sail upon your waters Since I was three feet tall You've seen it all, you've seen it all (A Pirate Looks at Forty - Jimmy Buffett) Nothing makes me more calm and content than sailing a boat on the ocean. Knowing...

Santa Catalina Island

Twenty-six miles across the sea Santa Catalina is a-waitin' for me Santa Catalina, the island of romance The Four Preps "26 Miles (Santa Catalina)" (Glen Larson and Bruce Belland) Shortly after I moved to California in 1985, I found and joined a sailing club in...

Life could be a dream, Sweetheart!

("Sh-Boom", sometimes referred to as "Life Could Be a Dream", a doo-wop song published in 1954) It is often said that life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. I've been lucky enough to experience several...

A tall ship and a star to sail her by

Sea Fever - by John Masefield I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by, And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking, And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey...