Sail Far Live Free

"My competition is with myself and the water planet. While sailing, you hang suspended with one hand in the ocean (tiller) and the other hand connected to the sky (mainsheet). You are the pivot point between these two great fluids, the two worlds, and you get to go along for the ride." -Dennis Olson I was reading through a list of favorite quotes that I keep tucked away on my harddrive and was struck by the words above. This particular sailing season has started incredibly slow for me for a variety of reasons and partly for no reason at all. I miss becoming the pivot point. Sometimes life gets in the way of living. Our domestic (mowing the lawn, keeping groceries stocked, laundry, etc.) and career (emails, meetings, reports, etc.) happenings start to blur our passions. But some of us are lucky enough to have passions that come into focus through a career. Others are content to stay in a foggy blur for years and simply hang on to the hope of future clarity....

Life on the Hook (Taken in Bonaire by K. Walters)

"Sailing became a compulsion: there lay the boat, swinging to her mooring, there blew the wind; I had no choice but to go." -E.B. White from The Sea and the Wind that Blows (1977) Sailing means something different to all of us fortunate enough to have ever felt the power of the wind whisking us across the water. For those of us in latitudes far from the equator, the summer season becomes the epicenter of our sailing. It seems fitting to celebrate sailing as a part of our lives during summer. And so, Summer Sailtice was born. Summer Sailstice is the global sailing holiday celebrated on the weekend closest to the summer solstice. This international event was founded in 2001 to connect the global sailing community in a fun, creative, multifaceted, multi-location sailing holiday.  Every year, Summer Sailstice connects over 19,000 sailors all over the world—cruisers, racers and recreational—to celebrate and showcase life under sail.  It has expanded to include par...

A light at the end of the dock (Taken in Saugatuck, MI by K. Walters)

The following is the original draft of an article of mine that recently appeared in BoatU.S. Magazine (April/May 2013 edition). The editors at BoatU.S. Magazine are great to work with and truly do improve my writing, but I'm posting my original draft here without their changes just to keep the blog entirely in my voice. If you want to read the version that appeared in the magazine, click here . Summer School on Lake Michigan by Kevin Walters I have always known boats and water would play a major role in my life.  What I didn’t know was that the more I let those two characters act out, that I would somehow feel fulfillment and yet longing for more all at the same time.  The first clash of these two feelings came during the summer of 2010 when my wife and I and our then only two young daughters (ages 5 and 8) capitalized on an opportunity to try cruising beyond a week here and a weekend there. Our kids, boat and budget were all small but our ambition was grand.  We h...