"Gilligan" wrote in message . ..
| I've done a little searching for sailing and philosophy. Here are some
| interesting things I've found:

|
|
| Call of the Ancient Mariner (International Marine/McGraw-Hill, 258pp,
| $19.95) is not just for the "ancient." It's a cautionary tale for the young
| whipper-snappers among us, a meditation for middle-aged sailors and a
| rip-snorting inspiration for the just plain old. (Ancient seems so
| pre-historic.)
| Octogenarian sailor/author, Reese Palley, originally set out to write a
| practical guidebook on how to be an old sailor. But as he thought about it
| "there seemed to be much more than guidance needed. Sailor folk, young and
| old...need not only a 'how to do it' but 'why to do it at all.' " So, tucked
| in amongst a barrage of practical information, sources and techniques, is
| Reese Palley's no holds barred philosophy of sailing, honed from very, very
| long experience. (In his sixties and seventies he made three transatlantic
| crossings and a circumnavigation.)
|
| "People die these days as much from boredom and irrelevance as from
| disease...we must put aside the temerity of the young and accept the risk
| that it is a bit more dangerous to be an Ancient Mariner than a young and
| nimble one... Once we glance about us...our own handicap of too many decades
| turns into something akin to pride that we had made it at all... So, sans
| eyes, sans teeth, sans strength of limb...we have an obligation to our great
| age to keep putting our ancient asses into the wet and cold and endless
| tumult of the sea."
|
| All this rabble-rousing is delivered in the introduction followed by
| sections full of short essays with titles like, "We Ain't Dead Yet." "In
| Praise of Irresponsibility" berates most retirees for not having the
| "sapient long-headedness to recognize this precious gift of freedom and turn
| away from the world, from progeny and from dulling friends toward the proper
| usage of time...discovery of a new life."
|
| The book offers hundreds common sense suggestions in deference to age,
| shortening sailing goals, for instance. Instead of going off to uncharted
| territory for an undetermined amount of time Palley says, "That's it my old
| friends. Around the Atlantic basin on your own bottom, by your own ancient
| brain and muscle in a half a year. It will add swagger to your stride and a
| decade to your life."
|
| On choosing crew he says "abjure smokers, dopers and alcoholics" but "by
| all means take an animal as crew. They are, perhaps, God's apology for all
| the human misfits in the world." (Palley has previously provided practical
| advice on the shipboard care and feeding of such crew.)
|
| He warmly extols the pleasure of sailing down wind. "Sailing against the
| wind is an activity "best performed by loutish youths who compose the crews
| of racing boats...showy and vulgar. If you have the good taste and the good
| breeding not to wear argyle sox with a tuxedo (or perhaps anytime), then why
| in the world would old you want to sail against the wind... There's a
| special kind of rapture associated with sailing with the wind. It's a
| curious reprise of youth. Everything is soft, easy and non-threatening."
|
| On health, he says, "the lesson we learn as we sail into our terminal
| decades is that a sailboat is the least pleasant place to be, except for all
| the other possible places to be." A long and humorous evaluation of the
| meaning of "comfort" is followed by a delicious paean to "luck" presented as
| a list. "My wife Marilyn, whom I dearly love, is a great sailor. Luck. At
| eighty plus, I'm still sailing. Luck, courtesy of the Great Genetic Lottery
| game." And so on.
|
| He suggests that the motion of a sailboat provides muscle tone, (you don't
| need to build it, just maintain it). He also insists on a simple diet.
| "Never have a fridge on your boat. You'll be using precious power for
| keeping foods you shouldn't be eating anyway."
|
| Scattered among the chapters of advice and counsel are "portraits" of
| other ancient mariners, people from all walks of life who have been
| rejuvenated by taking to sail. Perhaps the most remarkable is Bill Pinkney
| whom Palley describes thus, "He had no money. He had never sailed in a deep
| ocean. He was totally deaf in one ear. He comes from a broken family. He was
| raised on welfare. He is Black. And, Lord help him, he is Jewish. At the age
| of fifty, when most men are dickering for cemetery plots, Bill decided to
| sail solo around the world."
|
| In the concluding chapter, "My Debt to Unlikely" contains the most
| succinctly expressed answer to "why" he keeps sailing, "She separates me
| from most of humanity. She allows me to be exuberantly different. She
| requires that I do my life, not merely view my life."


Cranky old fart but give him credit for voicing his opinions and having
spunk. Reminds me of Lloyd Bonafide. (USN retired - Korean War vet)

Paladin

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