TalkingBoating.com

Sailing the seas has been the greatest fascination of man.  Man has been overwhelmed by water even from the start of his birth wherein he is totally submerged in the aqueous vat known as the uterus.  But, man’s romanticism with water does not end their.  As soon as he grows up, he will found out that 70% of the total composition of the earth he is living in is water.  Likewise, exploring the charters of water is not only a lifelong challenge, but the greatest lifestyle ultimatum of man.

The Greeks has always found the Mediterranean to be their greatest ultimatum. Its vastness has made a challenge to all the people of that world at that time when it is the biggest sea ever known.  No wonder, the Greeks are the first masters of the sea with the knowledge that is coming from the earlier sailors, the Phoenician. Until then, traversing the water was not only a way of conquering one’s adamant spirit, but also discovering new places. Christopher Columbus braved the unknown side of the Atlantic for the most European and discovered the new world.  Just as mountains are for the mountaineers, the sea is for the sailors to scale.

Nowadays, people had found a new way of repeating the feat that was once made by Greeks in the Mediterranean, and Columbus in the Atlantic. These days, sailing remains to be a fascination in medium sized boats called yachts.  The advantage of having a yacht in sailing is its flexibility in coursing through bodies of water.  Not only it is flexible to sail near coastal area, it can also dare to face the current of the big ocean.

Yachts are more practical to be used privately.  Because it can be driven by a wind like in dinghy types, you can economize the use of gasoline.  In yachts, the owner is the captain.  Perhaps with some special crew with him, the most important is that the yacht owner is the one who takes command as to where he would like to sail.

 But if one needs to pursue his interest in yacht, one has to be familiarized with the mariners’ way of doing it.  The best persons to get to know of the sea are the mariners. Mariners have special system in sailing which a yacht enthusiast should know.  One of the basic systems a yacht enthusiast has to learn from mariners is map reading.  With its legends and markings, cruising in a guided map is just as safe as driving with a road map at hand.  Since direction is needed, compass reading is also a valuable tool.  However, with the latest advances of technology, a sound knowledge in Global positioning satellite is a must for those who want to scale the seas.  But, when it comes to the worst case scenario, one need to know the ancient method of sailing by the stars.  The stars have been the ancient guide of the sailors.  For years, it still remains to be the same in spite of the latest technological advances. No wonder it is part of the courses to be learned in mariner’s course.

For years, yachting has found some enthusiasts.  Yacht clubs have been sprouting every now and then in different country. Though aviation has conquered the modern transportation, but man’s fascination still remains.