Saturday, May 30, 2009

I'm not back

It is May 30th and I'm not back. For some strange reason, the obsession with counting the number of times that one has gone sailing in each year has infected me like some strange disease. Tillerman reflected on his failed attempt at sailing 100 times in 2008.

In that post he described where the idea came from, an article in the laser class magazine about how top laser sailors sail at least that many days a year. He considered it a commitment.

Bah Humbug, I say. What is the point of sailing if it is a commitment?

Why do we sail? Because we are committed?

That is a strange way to look at it.

I sail because it is a taste of freedom unlike no other.

I want to taste it all the time.

It is an addiction.

During one sail, someone asked me:

"What do you do when you aren't sailing?"

"Thinking about sailing" - duh

It was from this obsession that the Got Wind and Water meetup group was born.

EVK4 has moved on to being the SF Sailing Examiner.

I've gone from writing about sailing (when I wasn't sailing) to counting how many times I've gone sailing, to just sailing as much as I can. So it's been a while since I've posted on this blog.

Since I can't sail 100% of the time, and I can't stop thinking about sailing 100% of the time, I'm focused on sharing my obsession with as many other people as I can. Not through blogging, but by getting them to go sailing with me.

I mean, why read a blog about sailing when it is so easy to just go do it.

I've been rather successful at this. It isn't even June yet and I've gone sailing 54 times this year.

And I've gotten 37 people to go sailing with me on a regular basis.

Maryam, one of the Got Wind and Water junkies, understands this. There is a picture of her at the helm of Xpression, a C&C 110, that says it all. The boat has a large wheel, but what I love about the picture is that the smile on her face can't hide behind that wheel.


Tracy, another regular among the folks sailing with me on the Got Wind and Water site has started to call me 'Captain Crack'.

I'm not back, I'm just out supplying my group of junkies with their sailing fix.