In Western Australia they don’t even know how to make that vital piece of sailboating equipment, the gin and tonic. ~ P.J. O'Rourke (Holidays in Hell))
A lot of people ask me if I were shipwrecked, and could only have one book, what would it be? I always say 'How to Build a Boat'- Stephen Wright
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. - William A. Ward
Twenty years from now you will be more disppointed 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
The lovely thing about cruising is that planning usually turns out to be of little use. - Dom Degnon
"Cruising has two pleasures. One is to go out in wider waters from a sheltered place. The other is to go into a sheltered place from wider waters." - Howard Bloomfield
One of the best temporary cures for pride and affection is seasickness." - Henry Wheeler Show
"The sea finds out everything you did wrong." - Francis Stokes
"Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit." - Brooks Atkinson
There are three sorts of people; those who are alive, those who are dead, and those who are at sea. - Old Capstan Chantey attributed to Anacharsis, 6th Century BC
The cure for anything is saltwater – sweat, tears, or the sea. - Isak Dinesen
Men in a ship are always looking up, and men ashore are usually looking down." - John Masefield
Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk." - Sir Francis Chichester
"There are only two colors to paint a boat, black or white, and only a fool would paint a boat black." - Nathanael G. Herreshoff
The wind and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigator. - Edmund Gibbon
The chance for mistakes is about equal to the number of crew squared. - Ted Turner
When I forget how talented God is, I look to the sea." -Whoopi Goldberg
The perfection of a yacht's beauty is that nothing should be there for only beauty's sake." - John MacGregor
"Only two sailors, in my experience, never ran aground. One never left
port and the other was an atrocious liar." - Don Bamford
port and the other was an atrocious liar." - Don Bamford
The goal is not to sail the boat, but rather to help the boat sail herself. - John Rousmaniere
The only way to get a good crew is to marry one. - Eric Hiscock
"I am a citizen of the most beautiful nation on earth. A nation whose laws are harsh yet simple, a nation that never cheats, which is immense and without borders, where life is lived in the present. In this limitless nation, this nation of wind, light, and peace, there is no other ruler besides the sea."
"You do not ask a tame seagull why it needs to disappear from time to time toward the open sea. It goes, that's all."
The best ships are the friendships
I've met the most interesting people while flying or on a boat. These methods of travel seem to attract the kind of people I want to be with. Hedy Lamarr
Being on a boat that's moving through the water, it's so clear. Everything falls into place in terms of what's important and what's not.- James Taylor
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with this idea of opening a restaurant back in Indiana on a little pond. The guests would order their dinner and then take a little boat out with a colored flag on the front of it. When the matching color of the flag on their boat went up on a flag pole, their dinner was ready! - Greg Kinnear
The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage. The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting place. – Arthur Ransome
I have had to pass a considerable portion of my life aboard small craft of various kinds, and after a long and mixed experience of the life, I have come to two very definite conclusions concerning it. One is that life on a small boat in fine weather is the only kind of life worth living. The other is that, in bad weather, it’s just plain hell. – Weston Martyr
“I grew to judge every purchase by how many bronze screws I could buy for the boat if I didn't spend on this or made do without that.” ― Lin Pardey, Bull Canyon: A Boatbuilder, a Writer and Other Wildlife