Traveling By Boat

Answer 1

Is there anything more beautiful than sailboat with its sails gently unfurled, blowing across the ocean? Watch it from the shore, feel the sun, inhale the ocean breeze. Climb aboard and sail off where the world will never find you.

Travel is exciting in a boat, where you have the freedom to decide where you want to go. One place where sailors love to go island hopping is the Caribbean. When you sail into English Harbor in Antgua you are sailing where Sir Francis Drake sailed and you can still see the old battlements. Dominica is a beautiful island of waterfalls and lakes. Montserrat is famous for its volcanoes.The Pacific also offers a wide range of islands, from Polynesia to Hawaii to the Aleutians. All the continents except Antarctica have exciting ports, so the world is your oyster.

Sailboats are classified according to masts and sails. The smallest is the catboat, with only one mast and one sail. The hull holds one or two people sitting down, and is fun for taking to the beach and maybe racing with some friends. Sloops also have one mast but are rigged with two sails, a mainsail and a jib. Ketches and Yawls also have two masts, and the mainmast may be rigged with two sails, like the sloop. The difference is where the mizzen (rearward) mast is located. In the ketch the mizzenmast hangs over the aft, or rearward, part of the hull. The yawl’s mizzen sail hangs over the waterline and is used primarily for steadying the boat rather than for speed. A schooner also usually has two masts, with the mainmast aft. The name comes from the Scots word “scoon,” meaning to skip across the water. Sloops, ketches, yawls, and schooners have amenities such as galleys (kitchens) heads (restrooms), and bunks (beds), and may be sailed wherever the sailor would like to go.

At one time sailboats could sail only when the wind was blowing, and when there was no wind, the vessel was “in irons,” like a prisoner locked in iron chains. Motorboats were disdainfully called “stinkpots.” Now many sailboats have engine that may be used when no wind is available. If you look closely, you can notice smoke coming out of some masts, which double as smokestacks.

Sailing with the wind behind the vessel is called “running,” and was the earliest and simplest way to sail. Then the British discovered a method called “tacking”, which allows the boat to go against the wind, enabling the Brits to go out and home again.

If you would like to sail and be reasonably assured of being able to come home again, look up a sailing school near you and take instructions from a competent sailor first. Sail Magazine has listings for sailing schools. Happy sailing.