marilaughlen

Travel-Photography

Posts from the ‘Sailing’ category

Sailing

There is much to be experienced whilst riding the winds on large powerful bodies of water.   Navigating coastal shores towards a well plotted destination inclusive of wind directions and tides makes for many challenges to embrace and inspire.

My first opportunity at the helm of Songline was sailing  the Tyranian sea towards the west  coastline of Italy. Wind  was good at about 17kn and I was humbled and surprised by the delayed motion of the bow as I steered the course.  It was such a long boat compared to what I had ever sailed before, on the Great Lakes in Canada. Before this experience I had sailed on smaller racing boats in the 25′ to 30′ range.  Steering this size of yacht , a Sweden 45′ and also built for  racing with twice the length, I felt a moments lag between the wheel and the bow.  She was stiff and responsive and I knew this boat could sail any conditions extremely well.  It was like driving a Jaguar after being accustomed to a Porche Boxer and its all good.

Adventures in Sailing


Approaching land

on Songline was always exciting as we prepared for a safe mooring.  We would contact the port marina for verification that we would have a berth and usually we were met by marina personal who would come in a zodiac or small boat to escort us into our aloted berth.  With all the fenders placed along the hull we would stand on deck with the ropes ready to tie to the dock.  Usually things went smoothly, yet sometimes confusion with instructions or a botched rope toss would leave us scrambling to correct it.  We usually berthed with transom to the main dock and port or starboard alongside a finger-dock.