Sea crossing: the emotions of sailing

Crossing the sea is always exciting, no matter where you’re leaving from or the destination you’re heading to: the mere thought of running on a imaginary line linking what the sea divides always makes me excited and hopeful.

This happens every time I sail and it was like this for the respectworthy “Lion”  and it’s like this even when, more simply, I sail off from Tuscany to reach the island of Capraia.

It doesn’t matter if you sail or navigate under power. And it doesn’t matter the amount of miles you sail since what brings out these strong emotions is the very concept of crossing and the moving horizon line.

Maybe the explanation is somewhere inside us, hidden in our almost dormant instinct of discover and exploration. That’s maybe the impulse that leads us to choose means that, no matter how fast they can be, are always too slow to enable us to see the beauty of open sea.

Open sea… There is no more personal and relative definition than this one.

Open sea welcomed our Daydreamer many years ago when, still not yet fully restored, she faced, like a baby taking his first steps, her first miles from Bocca di Magra to the island of Capraia, Italy.

It was a travel full of unknowns, I didn’t know the boat very well and every single sound and crunch were a cause for concern for me while today the same noises confirm that everything is turning out well.

Of course, it would have been better to sail those miles after refitting and restoration works: the shower would have been warm and my neighbour at the dock of Portoferrario wouldn’t have smiled at my mooring line used as a genoa sheet but, you know, if we waited that everything is ok, we maybe would never leave.

And open sea welcomed us last year, too, during our crossing from Calvi to Liguria when perfect sea and weather conditions accompanied one among the most beautiful rides of my sailor’s life. For almost one hundred miles, the Daydreamer has told the sea her joy, flying on the waves while a dopey smile on my face wouldn’t disappear.

Yes, because, at sea, some days are destined to be engraved in the memory. Like this day, for example, that, although I’m coming back home and I’m exclusively navigating under power, is giving us so much that we’ll never forget it.

So, please, enjoy your sea crossing experience on your sailboat, motoryacht or RIB: adventure and emotion are not part of an exclusive way of sailing, they are part of us and not of the means we use.

So, please sail, sail and sail! Because nice surprises are around the corner and you can benefit from only out of the harbour.

Moreover, if you recognize a certain similarity between your sailing experience and your life, then you’ll have understood the very essence of enjoying the sea or, at least, what it represents for me.