A sailing craft is a scale, a balance of forces.  The reward for balancing these forces is propulsion.  Water over your rudder, steerage over the horizon and freedom to explore. The mast of a sailboat is a great big lever.  The sails are attached to the lever and gather the wind.  The wind in turn […]

I have seen the sea from beneath. I have seen the sea from above. I have felt its gentle tug at my fingertips. As my arm drapes over the leeside, hauled close to the wind. The sea has loved me. The sea has terrified me. The sea has opened my eyes. Showing me this cup […]

Sailing Alaska and Life Part 8  “The pull is found in the push” What is the fire inside us? Not the fire of life itself or the creation thereof.  But the drive.  The pump in our chest that fills our ribcage with will and zest…. What design are we born to, that carries our drive?  […]

Below is a link to another blog, belonging to my friends Bixler and Kristen.  They are fellow sailors and had some repairs to make on their vessel.  All the hard work of learning to TIG weld stainless steel aboard Empiricus paid off.  We had fun working together on their boat this fall. That is one […]

There is a saying that goes “If you don’t know a knot, tie allot”  Noting could be further than the truth.  Knots must be learned if we wish to silence the clattering, tangles in our rigging.  Mend our parted sheets and make our anchors fast. When wind overcomes gravity and gravity overcomes grip, a knot […]

There are few things more satisfying to a sailor than flying all the canvass.  Every stitch of sail, drawing and pulling your craft.  Your own private cloud tacked to your deck like a giant cluster of balloons that magically draw you along your chosen path.  Each scrap of cloth held in status.  They tug at […]

 What brings food its flavor?  What takes life from blah to bliss?  Exactly what is it that puts the twinkle in the old mans eye?  Take 2 kids any age above 10.  Hand one a 20-dollar bill, asking nothing of him.  Hand the other a shovel and tell him if he digs a big hole […]

 Stress is relative to prior experience.  As is Joy.  As is Love, as is Passion, as is fear as is pleasure.  As is beauty. Beauty… How to describe, how to paint that….  I see it.  Its painted in my head.  It plays like a dance with the prom queen for me.  But I didn’t find […]

GUEST AND CREW By Captain Jesse Osborn   I once chose my friends from a crowd of strangers….  A fellow student who sat nearby, or laughed at the same jokes, or rode the same bus.  A kid whose parents knew mine or lived down the street.    We grew up with those kids or others […]