CAPTAINS LOG
by George Day
Blue Water Sailing
JULY 2009
Rediscovering Discovery
In our lifetimes the world seems to have shrunk by a factor of three or more. A generation or two ago, islands like Tahiti, Bali and Bora Bora were exotic and remote, islands of legend and mystery that we read about in the National Geographic or in the pages of the great sailing adventure books by written by the likes of the Hiscocks, the Roths or the Smeetons.
There was a real aspect of discovery in the business of sailing a boat far away using only a sextant, paper charts and the old Pilot books for guidance.
There were few if any cruising guides and the islanders you met often had not met an American sailor before. They certainly did not speak English. Discovery back then was essentially the same as it was for Captain James Cook 200 years ago (except for the charts he made!). The world was fresh and new and amazing and we had very little real knowledge about it.
Today every fifth grader knows where Tahiti and Bali are and some of them have even been there by airplane. They have seen the Discovery and History Channels, they have watched The Amazing Race, Survivor and Lost on TV and have an amazingly wide but only inch-deep familiarity with the world (or pseudo world) and all of the people and places in it. In the new information age, there is very little that seems amazing and exotic about the world. And, wherever you sail or travel you will find local natives who speak some English and have an opinion about America’s new president. Just about everyone around the world has access to Google Earth—which singlehandedly has shrunk the planet by half. Invite a local Tahitian fisherman aboard for a visit and, with a computer and a sat phone, you can show him an aerial picture of your home 10,000 miles away. We don’t even think this is magic anymore and neither does he.
But for sailors, there is still something unique and magical about sailing to a new landfall, even if the marina there is just like the marina at home. You may have a GPS, digital charts and a detailed cruising guide to eliminate the mystery and provide a safe landfall, but you have in fact got there on your own and that makes all the difference. You are no longer a tourist. You are a sailor. Very different animals.
From the deck of a boat making landfall, the spires of Bora Bora rising above the horizon look ever so much more magical and new than they do from the back of a diesel minivan. From the cockpit of an anchored cruising boat, the sound of Balinese gamelan wafting across Benoa harbor is still the most exotic way to discover new music and a new culture as there is. And, night diving for lobster with local fishermen allows you to discover the ocean in an entirely new way. Sailors do these things.Tourists don’t. That’s why every July we bring you our annual guide to World Sailing Adventures starting on page 30. There are sailing adventures and charters to be had all around the world.
You may fly in but you will travel as a sailor and will explore new regions and make discoveries all your own. All you need is a boat and a sailor’s natural urge to find out what really lies out there over the horizon. There’s no better way to rediscover the magic of discovery.
- George Day
