What was your moment?

[ParadiseParrot]

I had always loved the water.
Canoe camping
Little Beach Cats
Ski boats with my boys in high school etc.
Fishing in LI Sound with Dad.


But Sailing? Real Ocean Sailing? Not so much.

Junior year we had a trip we could sign up for.
One of those 4-5 day summer Schooner deals.

Day 2 the Captian answered all my annoying questions then said "Come here"

So I did. He explained what to do with the huge wheel and call the crew to tack.

We went from listing one way to the other.
The sound of the Masts creaking
The Manila rigging coming tight.
The Canvas Snapped.
I did it. I was a Greek Hero.I found Nirvana.
The Sound of the water rushing past the hull.
The wind in the sails of a 125 ft vessel.
The Weight of the Sun on my Face.

I dream of this at Night.
I can hear the sound in my head right now.
That was the Moment for me.

[TQA]

Sailing into La Coruna past the Tower of Hercules the 1800 year old lighthouse that marks the entrance. I was on my first big boat, at the start of a 7 year cruise, it was my first ever multi day passage and the first time I had used my sextant for real.

The feeling of following in the wake of all those mariners who had gone before and made the same landfall was pretty overwhelming.

[Irunbird]

Quite a bit less dramatic, but a buddy of mine and I rigged a (new to him) Hobby 14, pushed it off the beach (me on the trampoline, he still standing on the beach) and said to me, "you're sailing, dude!". I'd never been on a sailboat before, and it was another 25 years before it would happen again. Little did I know that I was already hooked!

[Captainmeme]

Wing and wing from Marco Island to Fort Jefferson on a cloudless night. I looked up and was taken back at how many stars I could see. It was if someone had taken a brush, dip it into a bucket of stars and painted the night sky.

[flyingwelshman]

Standing on the bridge wing of the US Tarawa in a mid-Pacific storm. The spray from the breaking waves soaking me.
Seawater streaming down my face. The hook was set.

[SJ34]

I had just finished restoring my first boat, a Lightning, and was catching a lift across the harbor on a friends Santana 23 to the launch so I could splash my boat.

I had been enamoured with boats even as a child but had never sailed. We cast off from the dock under main and jib on a beautifull fall day in Marina Del Rey. The skipper turned off, the sails gently set and the rush I felt as the boat began to effortlessly slide across the water was like a drug. I have been chasing that first high for over 20 years now.

I've had lots of memorable moments since but that was the one that started it for me.

[Hartley18]

Been sailing far too long to remember the first moment.. maybe it was kicking my younger brother out of the Sabot not 50 yards from the finish line (he never did crew for me again)... but whatever it was, growing up in the Whitsundays must have helped there somewhere.

[rugosa]

11 years old and my first trip to the waterfront, first year at summer camp. Sunfish, Grew's, then the Lightning - all in a month. Looking back - that was the aha event.

[jmpeltier]

My first time sailing out of Dana Point when I was about six or seven. I had never been on a boat and it was typical California winter conditions. My cousin was egging me on not to throw up...so, naturally I did for the rest of the day. When we got back into the harbor I was dehydrated, exhausted, and hated sailing. That's when I realized that if something was that discriminating, it was worth conquering. Now here I am 25 years later with my own boat and ready to circumnavigate South America.

[smallboatlover]

The sailing but i had since a little kid seeing the boats pass always love the sailboats. What really moment that makes me love sailing even more is every time i take out my new to me 27' boat and either go further then i have before, do something diffrent like wing on wing, or even have the boat heel over more then i have before. Those moments make me love sailing and the sailing lifestyle. i'm only 16 but i think im already hooked on the sailing life style