# Cruising Quote



## duffer1960 (Aug 11, 2000)

I am trying to track down a quote I read, but now cannot find. It basically
boiled down to don''t wait for the perfect boat, the perfect cruising kitty,
or retirement, just cast off the lines and sail away. It was maybe by
Ernest Hemingway or Mark Twain, maybe. If you have it, can you please post
it? Thanks.


Sincerely, 

Russ Duff 

Catalina 38, Hull #112 "Lolei" 
Soon to be "AVANTURA"
Lake Erie
Gibraltar, Michigan
RDUFF AT VISTEON DOT COM


----------



## TrueBlue (Oct 11, 2004)

Russ, Is this the quote you are referring to?

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn''t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
-Mark Twain

It''s one of my favorites, along with:

"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing--absolutely nothing--half so much worth doing as messing about in boats. Simply messing about in boats..."

Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows


Steve


----------



## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

I surfed across a web page that was full of great sailing quotes. My favorite was: You cannot have too much fuel, unless your on fire.


----------



## Irwin32 (Jul 1, 2001)

Don Casey and Lew Hackler from "Sensible Cruising":

If you dream of cruising start today. Take the small cruiser you have now and go cruising. The perfect boat is not the one you dream about. It is the boat that takes you cruising.

My recollection is that was a anumber of times in slightly different ways in that book.


----------



## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

How about Sterling Hayden:
"We are a systematic people. We have a systematic approach to almost everything- from raising children to getting buried. Somehow it is the male’s duty to put the best years of his life into work he doesn’t like in order that he may “retire” and enjoy himself as soon as he is too old to do so. This is more than just the system- it is the credo. It is the same thing that prompted Thoreau to say in 1839: ''The majority of men lead lives of quiet desperation.''
To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen, who play with their boats at sea - "cruising," it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.
Little has been said or written about the ways a man may blast himself free. Why? I don’t know, unless the answer lies in our diseased values. A man seldom hesitates to describe his work; he gladly divulges the privacies of alleged sexual conquests. But ask him how much he has in the bank and he recoils into a shocked and stubborn silence.
"I''ve always wanted to sail to the South Seas, but I can''t afford it." What these men can''t afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of "security." And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone.
What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That''s all - in the material sense. And we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade.
The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it the tomb is sealed.
Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?
-Sterling Hayden (1916-1986)


----------



## snottyone (Feb 6, 2005)

Thanks for that Rob. It is truely inspiring. Dave


----------



## GordMay (Dec 19, 2002)

"Go small - go now"
The Pardy''s, I think.

and the corollary to “too much fuel” is:
“You can’t have too much water, unless you’re sinking”


----------



## wannam (May 19, 2004)

"I''m too old for this ship"


----------



## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

I think the Pardeys say, "Go small, GO CHEAP, go now."

Personally, my favorite quote, which I have often thought of having tatooed on my arm, is "Reef early". That''s because I don''t.

Chas.


----------



## Independence (Jan 12, 2004)

*It's getting so bad...*

When I was living aboard Independence in Key Largo in the late 1980s. A sailor who sailed back from the Bahamas to restock his cruising funds but couldn't get a job, any job. He was down to eating rice and tuna fish which was about all he could afford. After telling me his situation he said."It's getting so bad I'll have to go back to eating lobster!" as all one had to do was dive over the side a pick out a lobster. They were in legal water at the time.

I told hem if his words got out this place would be so crowded there would be no place to anchor.

It's one of my best cruising stories.

Independence


----------



## KAYAKDAN (Jun 21, 2005)

"We have met the enemy...and he is us." Walt Kelly.

"Most misery is self inflicted." Me.

Just go out and do it. If you think you can-you can. If you think you can't-you're right!

We considered ourselves a howling success when someone asked me very seriously"so you guys are retired?" when we told them what we had been doing in the past year or so.
I go to work to rest up from the weekends!


----------



## pma_foyl (Feb 14, 2002)

*Less uplifting, but equally entertaining!*

Those quotes are quite inspirational (and undoubtedly true), but my favorite (and utterly truthful) cruising quote is this Bierce-like definition:

Cruising: The fine art of repairing your boat in exotic locations.


----------



## Daria (Mar 23, 2001)

"To young men contemplating a voyage I would say go." Joshua Slocum

My personal favorite...
"Do or do not. There is no try." Yoda.

We have some more on our website at www.coastalboating.net under Resources (Quotes).


----------



## seamountie (May 29, 2001)

The Pardy's quote is: Go small, go simple, go now.


----------



## jimthom (Oct 22, 2004)

Salt water can cure most things: whether its tears, sweat or cruising the ocean.


----------

