25.3.12

Sailing Quotes and Thoughts

Some of the best quotes and thoughts about sailing that I've found over the years. They come from different sources, blogs, forums, magazines, websites...so it's kinda dificult for me to name all the authors. Anyway here they are:


1) "Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than those you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
Mark Twain



2) "A bad day sailing is 100 times better than a good day at work"




3) "Sailing requires the management of all the systems on the boat, plus all the controls on the boat, while assessing the weather and navigation. It's planning everything to a fine level of detail and making the required adjustments all at the same time things are changing"



4) "There's nothing . . . absolutely nothing . . . half so much worth doing as simply throwing money at a boat."


5) "If you want to know what sailing is all about, just get in the shower with your clothes on, turn on the cold water, and eat a soggy peanut butter sandwich. While you're doing all this, drop a $100 down the drain every 2 minutes"

6) "What a ship is, you know, it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails,
that's what a ship needs.  But what a ship is,... really is, is freedom."
Captain Jack Sparrow



7) "Now I'm sick of a life that is too complicated. I want to wear shorts year round. I want to swim in the morning. I want to fish. I want to shop for fresh food in small markets. I don't want to work my butt off to make payments and then pay for insurance and cleaning and maintainence and upgrades for things that I really don't need to survive. I am cold and tired and I need a break. I don't want my job anymore. I want to laugh with my family in the sun. I want freedom."



8) "If a man is to be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most"
E.B. White



9) "20 MPH ain't fast unless, you do it in a 1000sq 3/2 house on 10foot waves"



10) “Would you get bored of cruising?” One of the replies stuck out in my mind. The poster said “I got bored…but it took six years. Best six years of my life! Nothing has to be forever to be worth doing!” In my mind that is perfect!



11) "You haven't been cold until you've been cold on a boat. I guess it's the humidity/moisture, but it is just REALLY cold."
Bill Dietrich



12) “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.”
William Arthur Ward



13) "Se navega por los astros, por la mar, por la tierra, por las gentes, por los sentimientos...se navega."
Altair



14) "How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when clearly it is Ocean."
Arthur Clarke 



15) "Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk."
Sir Francis Chichester





















16) "When a man comes to like a sea life, he is not fit to live on land."
Dr. Samuel Johnson



17) "Off Cape Horn there are but two kinds of weather, neither one of them a pleasant kind."
John Masefield



18) "For one thing, I was no longer alone; a man is never alone with the wind-and the boat made three."
Hilaire Belloc



19) "Sailors, with their built in sense of order, service and discipline, should really be running the world."
Nicholas Monsarrat



20) "I was born in the breezes, and I had studied the sea as perhaps few men have studied it, neglecting all else."
Joshua Slocum



21) "Only two sailors, in my experience, never ran aground. One never left port and the other was an atrocious liar."
Don Bamford



22) "Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him."
Charles G. Davis





















23) "The goal is not to sail the boat, but rather to help the boat sail herself."
John Rousmaniere



24) "Prevention is, as in other aspects of seamanship, better than cure."
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston



25) "The question that used to bother me at times, do not weigh anything before the immensity of a wake so close to the sky and filled with the wind of the sea"
Bernard Moitessier


26) "To deal with men is as fine an art as it is to deal with ships. Both men and ships live in an unstable element, are subject to subtle and powerful influences, and want to have their merits understood rather than their faults found out [...] After all, the art of handling ships is finer, perhaps, than the art of handling men."
Joseph Conrad


27) “I really don't know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it is because in addition to the fact that the sea changes and the light changes, and ships change, it is because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it we are going back from whence we came."
J. F. K.













 




28) "Wherever we want to go, we go. That's what a ship is, you know. It's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails; that's what a ship needs. But what a ship is...what she really is...is freedom."
Jack Sparrow



29) "Sailing a boat calls for quick action, a blending of feeling with the wind and watter as well as with the very heart and soul of the boat itself. Sailing teaches alertness and courage, and gives in retourn a joyousness and peace that but few sports afford."
George Matthew Adams



30) "Borders? I have never seen one. But I have heard they exist in the minds of some people."
Thor Heyerdahl




23.3.12

Nasa Earth Science

Very good visualization showing the Oceans surface currents


There's a complete 20 minutes version here

And here a study about Ocean and Wind flows


Full video here

17.3.12

WOW

A compilation of some near misses, lucky escapes and also some bad moves...



 
 
 

7.3.12

Refreshing

Not 100% sailing but a very good shot and edited video.
By the way, a GoPro camera is on my whishlist...


4.3.12

Sailors

So, do you wanna be a sailor? You better be!


MOB Devices

Following my last post a very good article found at gCaptain blog about the best MOB devices

MOB Devices


16.2.12

Sea Survivors


Sometimes things can go very wrong and that's when the human will and preserverance can make the diference. Well, of course a good dose of luck can also make the difference.

















Some survival at sea stories compiled by Christine Vrey and found in the Listverse site.

1.2.12

Like a Boss

Great footage from Alex Thomson Racing and his keel walk.



But more important is to see a perfect marriage between a professional sailing team and his main sponsor.

This video it's becoming viral over the internet and the social media and soon this will be an example of how to get some sponsorship activation, how to promote the engagement and the involvement of the sponsorship audience with the sponsor.


 We are talking marketing here!


26.1.12

Small is beautiful

I'm not a Laser fan but this is definitely intense sailing, to say the least.



Laser site can be found here

21.1.12

Young Guns

Laura Dekker, 16 years and 4 months old, has just become the youngest sailor to complete a solo circumnavigation of the world, cutting six months off the unofficial record set in 2010 by Australian teenager Jessica Watson, who was days away from her 17th birthday when she completed her own non-stop voyage.
















Her website with the late developments can be find here.

And I'm very sure that, like with J. Watson, a book will be on the way very soon. By the way, I strongly recomend "True Spirit", Jessica Watson's book

19.1.12

Team Building

Very interesting post from the Volvo Ocean Race site and the Team Telefónica about team dynamics and the importance of communication. Some CEO's should be learning something from these guys...

Communication is the name of the Game

Laser Performance

Another example of a clever advertising film

8.1.12

Circumnavigation Record!

Congratulations to Loïck Peyron and to his crew aboard Banque Populaire V for the Jules Verne Trophy.
It's the fastest circumnavigation of the world by any type of yacht, now on 45 days, 13 hours, 42 minutes and 53 seconds!

3.1.12

RNLI Lifeboat

I really don't understand how can someone leave safe harbour with a Force 10 forecast. And this was a boat from a sailing school putting their students and the RNLI crew in danger to rescue them!!

Anyway, brilliant job for the RNLI brave guys once again!



RNLI website

7.12.11

How not to X How to

Two different approaches, a MOB on both.

Lots of mistakes, poor decisions, but above all instructive. "How not to":


Now the "how to". Can you spot the differences?

1.12.11

Photos of the Year

Some of my favourite photos of 2011


 
Sydney to Hobart Race 2011

Nikon-Walkley nomination for The Daily Telegraph press photos award.
Australian sailor Jessica Watson, the youngest individual to sail unassisted around the world, battles huge seas 60 miles off Sydney on the second last day of her 210-day journey.

The start of the Route du Rhum 2011 - Sailing crowd!
I like this photo because of the huge crowd that went for the start of this race. Who says only soccer can move people?

I'm afraid I can't remember from where did I get this photo but I really like it for the simplicity of it.

 This one was taken by me at the Audi MedCup that took place in Cascais, Portugal, back in May 2011.

I love Sailing


Promoted by RYA, monthly prizes are there for the filmmakers and photographers that can best capture this love about sailing.

You can find some more info here