Photos

"The least advertised tragedy is the fear or dislike of sailing that can be instilled in your prospective sailing partners when your lack of skill leads to a few incidents that could have been avoided if you'd spent a little more time practicing sailing skills."

"I am a citizen of the most beautiful nation on earth, a nation whose laws are harsh yet simple, a nation that never cheats, which is immense and without borders, where life is lived in the present. In this limitless nation, this nation of wind, light, and peace, there is no other ruler besides the sea."

"It must be remembered that on long offshore passages a well-built and well-equipped boat will stand up to much more rough weather than will the crew."

"People really don't truly understand what real life is until you experience being that far offshore away from land. And it is unbelievably the best feeling on the planet. And I would do anything to be back every day."

"I live by a couple of rules concerning reefing when on long voyages. The first is that if the thought crosses my mind that I should reef, then I do it without debate. It's a great way for me not to push the boat too hard. The second is my 'cup of tea' rule. Wind, by its very nature, is unpredictable, so if the winds have eased to the point that I could easily sail with one less reef in the mainsail, I wait the time it takes me to make and drink a cup of tea before doing anything. The process normally takes around thirty minutes, so if the winds are still light when I'm done then I will shake out the reef and hoist more sail. More often than not, a gust will have come through that means I need to keep the reef in place to ensure I'm not overpowered in the gusts."

"The more you know, the less you need."

"The gratification that I get from coaching and teaching these guys and then finishing a Bermuda race is just knowing that I facilitated getting these guys from sort of point A to point Z... look at what these guys have accomplished, and I've helped facilitate that."

"Sharing the wisdom of the high seas, with those wise enough to seek it out."

"It's called wayfinding, princess. It's not just sails and knots. It's seeing where you're going in your mind. Knowing where you are, by knowing where you've been."

"I rarely remember my dreams ashore but almost always do at sea. Something about sleeping in a washing machine allows better access to the subconscious."

"The one place I know I belong is on the ocean. There is no question about that. You know, I have never felt like I belonged anywhere as much as I feel like I belong on the ocean."

"There was no hurry now, Joshua was to spend the winter in Casablanca, where the local yacht club had provided us with a safe mooring in extremely pleasant and gay company. The club members are really keen sailors who go out every weekend even if a howling gale whistles through the rigging, and many of them perform quite admirable feats of seamanship in leaving their moorings under sail alone, without a hitch and as though it were the most natural thing in the world. A real pleasure to watch."

"Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made, For somewhere deep in their oaken hearts the soul of a song is laid; A soul that sings with the ship along through plunging hills of blue, And fills her canvas cups of white with winds that drive her through."

"You'll be bothered from time to time by storms, fog, snow. When you are, think of those who went through it before you, and say to yourself, 'What they can do, I can do.'"

"Cause without the bitter, baby, the sweet ain't as sweet."

"That's how you succeed doing crazy stuff, right? You gotta be conservative in your day-to-day, even though the overall plan is not conservative, it's kind of crazy. But stay in the middle, man."

"Sailing, to me is the perfect outlet of all of my crazy, wrapped into one."

"I don't think there is one answer to heavy weather. I think every tactic that there is has got a very good argument for why it should be used and a very good argument for why it shouldn't be used. And there's success and disaster stories of I would say all of them. And every storm is different, every skipper is different, every crew is different, every boat."

"The more technology we add, the more likely we are to get ourselves into a situation where that stuff absolutely must work, and the less likely it is that we will be able to manage safely without it."

"In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness."