Travis, thank you for posting this. You are a man after my own heart, though you have lived much more of my dream than I have.
I learned to sail on a 26 foot Pearson Commander on Lake Erie in the early 70’s. I crewed in races on Lake Erie at every opportunity. I learned and taught navigation. In 1976 I had an opportunity to bare boat on a 39 foot center cockpit Pearson 390 in the Bahamas. I sailed in the Irish Sea. I am attuned, but short of my dream. Joshua Slocum and Sir Francis Chichester are my heros.
I have sailed on a friends Islander 34 with my feet on the transom opposite the cockpit, in the water.
We often would go out on Lake Erie when all the other boats were coming in because of the weather. If you can’t sail in foul weather, forget about sailing!
But you have nailed it...sailing is a life! In my early 40’s I visited a boat builder on the Chesapeake eastern shore in the 70’s and almost traded my house for a 40 ft ketch. Been sorry several times since.
Hey, you got your sailing licks in! That counts! I always wanted to sail on the Great Lakes. Maybe someday. First I want to get up to Maine in the summertime. When you are sailing you are connected to all of those old sailors from the Vikings and back then to the ones you mentioned to today. Sailing is sailing. It’s literally universal.