I was four when I first stood at the helm on my own.
I have my own boat, but when I first thought about taking a cruise, I thought, 'You're going to trap me on a boat, and I'm going to walk in circles and go crazy,' but it's awesome.
The fair breeze blew, The white foam flew, And the forrow followed free. We were the first to ever burst into the silent sea.
In 1968, I bought a 114-foot yacht, built in 1946, and lived on the Greek islands for a while. We had an extraordinary time in it. Then I gave it to The Beatles.
To be taken into account were some years of schooling, where I studied with diligence Neptune's laws, and these laws I tried to obey when I sailed overseas; it was worth the while.
We enjoy sailing small boats, two of which I have designed and built myself.
I've been sailing from the age of 2, and apparently, when I was 4, I told my dad, 'I know how to do this; you don't have to come with me anymore.'
I sailed a bit as a child, but it wasn't until I was around 40, when I was halfway through Patrick O'Brian's 'Master and Commander' novels, that I had the sudden epiphany that I had to go sail on a square-rig ship.
I used to own a dingy and can still sail one if pushed, but I like the pleasure boats.
I am not a yachting person, by nature, but I have just enough experience on the sea under sail to feel a certain nostalgia for it when I see a big white racing yacht heeled over at cruising speed on the ocean, and I can still tie a mean bowline knot on just about anything in less than 10 seconds.
There's a strange sense of pleasure being beat to hell by a storm when you're on a ship that is not going to sink.
This beginning motion, this first time when a sail truly filled and the boat took life and knifed across the lake under perfect control, this was so beautiful it stopped my breath.
There is nothing as relaxing as being out on the open sea, listening to the waves and the wind and the sails and voices downstairs yelling "HOW DO YOU FLUSH THESE TOILETS?"
I've always wanted to sail around the world in a handmade boat. And I built a boat. I had a boat built for me, I mean, and my second day out to sea I realized that (a) I'm not a sailor, and (b) I have no knowledge of basic navigation.
A young sailor boy came to see me today. It pleases me to have these lads seek me on their return from their first voyage, and tell me how much they have learned about navigation.
Those who never sail stormy waters are the quickest and harshest judges of bad seamanship.
With my husband, I have twice sailed across the Atlantic in a sailboat one third the length of the Mayflower. I know Atlantic gales inside and out. I endured one that lasted for three days with winds up to fifty knots.
The sailor is frankness, the landsman is finesse. Life is not a game with the sailor, demanding the long head
If there is one thing that will make a man peculiarly and insufferable self-conceited, it is to have his stomach behave itself, the first day at sea, when nearly all his comrades are seasick.
I wanted to sail when I was in grammar school and well remember memorizing the names of the sails from the Merriam-Webster's ponderous dictionary in the library. Now I am actually at sea - as a passenger, of course, but at sea nevertheless - and bound for Ecuador.
Whether the type of old sea captain that I have portrayed in my stories is gone forever, is a question. Certainly each summer I find that the ranks have perceptibly thinned. The longshore captain is still there, many of the men who are not any older than myself, but their viewpoint is not that of a man who sailed his square rigged ship out one morning with China as his destination.
My father was a sailor and our summer vacations were always on a sailboat. I had a little boat before I had a moped.
There is no more thrilling sensation I know of than sailing. It comes as near to flying as man has got to yet - except in dreams.
I'm an avid sailor, and my first time exploring the Dalmatian Coast and the Croatian islands was very special.
My father was the captain of a cargo ship. When I was about two years old, we used to sail with him. The crew of his ship would dress me up in fancy dress and make me dance for them. I was a performing monkey!
