I want to talk about sailing!

I have a question! How expensive is it to do this? Like do you have to be rich or is it attainable for us plebs?

I think my ultimate goal when the world becomes too awful to live in civilization anymore is to live aboard a boat somewhere pleasant. Unfortunately, it's difficult to push against the flow and start something like that early, but it's still there (mostly) in my head. I've always enjoyed sailing and my dad did the Mac once or twice. We'll see.

I used to sail optimists as a kid. It's a kind of tiny, very mobile and easy to maneuver sailing dinghy. I grew out of them and never pursued bigger boats. As an adult, sailing is something I would like to do, but not enough I think to warrant the investment of time and money into dealing with boats.

Would love to hear more about your trip.

I did a weeklong US Virgin Islands Sea Base adventure with my son's scout troop recently. It was pretty amazing. Sea Base is run by Scouting America, they provide a fully stocked sailboat with a captain. It was 12 of us on a 60 foot ketch. All shore access is via swimming/snorkeling, and sleeping is mainly on the open deck, so it's more of a roughing it style adventure than luxury sailing. We sailed around Saint Thomas and Saint John, visited different remote beaches and snorkeling spots in the Virgin Islands National Park, even did some hiking. The kids learned basics of sailing and navigation and basically ran the boat under the captains supervision, while the adults relaxed and enjoyed the scenery :) Almost all of it was under wind power, and the engine on the boat broke in the middle of the week, so we spent 3 days purely on sails - mooring using just the sails was quite an adventure every evening, it's a lot more difficult without the engines :) Most of us took Bonine (Meclizine) and had no sea sickness problems, except for 2 scouts who tried to go without, and both spent the first day puking their guts out - the sea was quite rough that day ! Sea Base is definitely not cheap, but it's a great experience for the kids, once in a lifetime for most of them too.

It's a great lifestyle that I could totally imagine myself enjoying, if I could swing it :)

How big a boat did you charter ? Was it with a captain, or did you sail it yourself ?

...i grew up on the coast and used to sail + race dinghies back in high school + college; moved inland and instead got into simulator racing in the mid-2000s, which scratched the itch surprisingly well, but ultimately ran short of hobby time so i have no idea how the simulator scene has since evolved...

I caught the sailing bug back during the 2012 London Olympics. I was unemployed at the time so I would wake up early and just watch BBC coverage all day out of Portsmouth.

Sadly, I wound up moving just about as far away as possible from any ocean (if you don't count the Arctic...) but I have done some lake sailing in Aeros and Hobie Cats. Also my wife gets violently seasick, though we did sail an Aero together and she was generally fine. I'd love to do it more often but maybe closer to retirement when I have more time lol

My family had a little sunfish that my pop and I would troll around and hike up on the keel in the bay down the shore in New Jersey. That shit would go so quick. I lived in PDX most of my adult life and now live in JAX, so I’m sure I can find some way to sail one of those again. Never tried the larger ships though. Sounds fun.

I've done a little, always with people who have more of a clue what they're doing than I do. I love it but can't even swim properly and don't have the ability to tip large amounts of money into a hole in the water.

My fantasy is a small old wooden boat I can sail about myself, I'm not bad at the wood side of things. It's highly likely to remain a fantasy.