A Lifestyle Choice

Good morning. It’s 7:30am and brilliantly sunny. The lake on which I dwell matches the blue sky, its surface textured with ripples. A corner of the flag on my neighbor’s boat moves slightly once in a while - barely a flutter. A sailboat in the distance has managed to pick up a bit of air to fill its sails. Scullers, whose powerful arms will make it seem immobile, chase it. Sculling is about speed; sailing is not. Glory Of The Seas, is passing by my window. A huge old gaff rigged wooden schooner with proud lines that project pride and power.

The Dictionary of Sailing defines a Schooner as a fore-and-aft rigged vessel with two or more masts, often called by how it is rigged, for example topsail schooner, gaff schooner, staysail schooner, etc. Sails on a gaff rigged boat have an unusual, "chopped off" look.

According to The Oxford Companion To Ships and Seas, the term schooner is possibly derived from the Scottish verb "to scon or scoon," to skip over water like a flat stone. An alternative source for the name is said to have come from a chance remark "there she scoons" from a spectator at the launch of the first vessel of the type at Gloucester, Mass. in 1713.

Spending so much time on the water, continually provides me with chances to learn about things outside my sphere of immediate intellectual interest. Weather, boats, mechanical things (I have a recalcitrant outboard) and wood finishes (it's about time to focus, once again, on the 6" wide toe rail that runs the edge the boat). In an odd and oxymoronish way, living on a boat keeps me grounded. As I've often said and written, it's a lifestyle choice not merely a place to live.