Sailing Away
When growing up I was a member of the Sea Scouts. We did all the things that the regular Scouts did, but had a nautical theme. This theme meant that our structure was set up and run like a ship’s operation. This also meant that we did activities such as sailing and had sponsorship from the local yacht club. The advantages of having the yacht club sponsor us meant that we were involved in a lot of activities with the yacht club and did a ton of sailing. We would volunteer as crew for members and get to go out sailing on our leader’s sailboat on a very regular basis.
Once joining the Sea Scouts I jumped at every opportunity to get out sailing. Our Scoutmaster at the time had a Tanzer 22 that he took us out often. My love of sailing grew in leaps and bounds while out on that boat. Sailing in the tanzer was quite fun. It was a quick and nimble little boat.
One summer I won the sailing school scholarship and spent a fantastic summer learning to sail in the little “Nutshells” and “Lazer II’s”. There is no better way to learn to sail than in a small boat. After dumping a few times in the lake you quickly learn how not to do things as well as learning the proper way of sailing.
At one time we also had a leader that was involved with Toronto Brigantine. This led to many adventures on the STV Pathfinder. Even before joining the Sea Scouts, I had fallen in love with sailing ships. Sailing the Pathfinder just increased that love of sailing both modern boats and the tall ships.
Although I like boating in any type of vessel, sailing would be one of my favourites. The feeling of freedom is amazing when the engine is finally turned off and boat is moving only under the power of its sails. The sound of the wind as it blows across the sails and the water running across the hull is a sound that always gives me happiness. To be moving only using the forces of nature is an incredible feeling, full of innocence and fascination.
The excitement that happens when the wind picks up is intoxicating. Trimming the sails and positioning the boat to take full advantage of the wind. As the boat heels over and picks up speed, the thrill is fantastic!
This week’s images are of course sailing related. When the Tall Ships were in Toronto in 2010 I had to take a trip down to check them out.
