I’m glad to have this opportunity to kick off my website and announce the publication of my first book! I’ve been writing about sailing for some time now, from “how-to” articles to regatta reports and interviews, but this has been a unique writing project for me in more ways than one.
My appreciation of my sport has always gone beyond the enjoyment I get from it on the water. I feel that there are inherent principles to sailing that offer, by analogy, valuable life lessons to carry ashore. I have often found that when I’ve been able to look at a problem ashore through the same lens that I would approach it through on the water, I’ve been able to identify solutions by making the situation feel more familiar. This could work with any subject you’re passionate about, of course, but the broad and diverse world of sailing offers up so many potential lessons to work and live by, it takes a book just to share the most apt of them.
The material covered in Plotting the Course floated in my imagination for years, generally surfacing when I’d be talking to sailing students about such things as being organized, weighing risk, working with others, or learning from their mistakes, to name a few. The more I ended a sentence with, “…and that’s good to remember in any case”, the more connections I made between sailing and the lessons it can teach us for life on shore.
I wrote Plotting the Course hoping to create an entertaining read that would actually make a positive difference somehow, even if for just one person, and to portray the sport of sailing in a genuine and positive light. Sailing can be so often misunderstood that I hope to share a point of view that will do justice to the sport by shining a light on its qualities, not only in the book, but on this site, as well.
In my future blog entries, I hope to put forth some fun and interesting postings that will offer some food for thought or a helpful hint, or maybe occasionally just bring a smile. As someone who for years has been enjoying this sport for all it has to offer, I hope you’ll be along as a reader, enjoying it with me.
Good sailing!
