If you want to raise your spirits during the pandemic, take a look at this blog by Salter Watson, who’s 13 years old and lives on a Nordhavn 47 named Spirited Away with his father, Alexander, where he’s “boat-schooling.” Salter says they’re into year two of a three-year plan, cruising in the Great Lakes, up and down the Atlantic Coast and, they hope, over to the Bahamas. Here’s Salter’s latest blog:
ANCHORING — WHAT I’VE LEARNED IN MY FIRST YEAR.
When my dad bought our boat, a man told him “cruising is about finding exotic anchorages and fixing things.” My dad said he didn’t really understand what that meant, but it was funny, so it stuck in his head. After a year, he and I see it’s not so far from the truth. We’ve had our share of things to fix. And we’ve experienced some amazing anchorages.
My dad says boating is a “yin yang” thing and told me to look up what that means. Wikipedia says it’s “how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.” I can see how our good experiences feel better after getting through bad ones, and how our bad experiences are overcome by the good ones. And maybe, how our good experiences wouldn’t feel as good if it weren’t for the bad ones, like how Spring feels after Winter, or how sunshine feels better after a storm passes through.
This post isn’t about “fixing things.” It’s about anchoring. Which has its own yin and yang. So far though, it’s been mostly yang.
First of all, there’s a difference between anchoring, mooring, and “picking up” a mooring ball. Anchoring is when you use your own anchor. Mooring is when you tie up to a dock. And picking up a mooring ball is when you loop your lines through the eye of a cable, which is attached to a fixed weight already on the bottom.
We’ve done all three, and while all have their purposes, and while it sure feels good to step off the boat after a long day on the water, my favorite is anchoring. Read more:
https://spiritedaway47.blogspot.com/2020/12/anchoring-what-ive-learned-in-my-first.html#more
