Setting Sail

“And therefore I have sailed the seas and come

To the holy city of Byzantium.”

William Butler Yeats sailed to a shining symbolic city without ever leaving the recesses of his imagination. I intend to sail there for real.

            In the Summer of 2021, a childhood friend and I will bisect the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Istanbul in a small, open boat. That gives me two years to become a proficient in small-boat sailing and navigation. This blog is to document my preparations before sailing to Byzantium.

            Luckily, I’ve got a solid background at sea, knowledgeable friends (with sailboats of their own), a 15 foot sailing dinghy I’m in the process of rebuilding, unlimited access to the ocean, free time, and salt water in my veins.

            My first priority is getting Eurydice, my modified albacore dinghy, into the water. I’ve already sanded, filled and patched her hull, mended her sails, built a tiller and centerboard, bought new standing rigging and augmented her old hardware. I still have to sand, patch and paint her deck and interior, add reef points to her sails and install oarlocks in her gunwales. These last changes are to augment her racing pedigree by having having her able to be de-powered and rowed. As a racer, she’s not an ideal dinghy for cruising – but she’ll be an unforgiving sailing coach.

            With Eurydice in the water in the Spring, I’ll have the rest of the season to sail. By mid-summer I intend to do some short cruises, starting with day-trips and then some weekends. If everything goes well, I’ll finish the summer with a multi-day coastal cruise.

            For now, though, it’s boat-building.