I am a sailor, heart and soul. Nothing except not having a sailboat keeps me out of a boat. Every time there is a slight chance I can go sailing I leap up and with a pounding heart, rush out to the boat and bound onto it. My grandpa lives up in Canada on the east coast and he lets me sail his boat around. But I’ve sailed all over the world.

Here is my recipe for a great sailing experience:

Ingredients:

Storms: This is the first on the list for one main reason: I LOVE (!!!) storms! Rain falling and pattering on roofs, on my upturned face, on my shoulders. The water dripping down my back, leaving trails of liquid to clear a path for the next few drops; the wind trying to throw me around like a doll. The excitement of a storm on land is totally different than on the water. On the water, the surface of our planet is moving under me, the wind is blowing the boat around like a toy, the waves are fighting for being tallest and reaching their wet fingers over the edge of the boat to grab at my feet, trying to be the first to push me over - and there is, occasionally, lightning.

Lightning: This is only in the recipe for one reason. DO NOT ADD! The moment you have lightning on the water, you know it is time to get to cover. On the water, you are the tallest thing. Lightning goes for the tallest things, and it is never good to be hit by lightning, no matter where or who you are.

Wind: Wind is what gives a sailing ship life. It turns a hulk of aluminum, wood, or fiberglass into a sleek craft skipping over the water in great leaps. Every boat needs a different amount of wind to get to its top speed, but when you get the top speed, it is amazing how much speed can come from the wind and the boat working together.

A light heart: If you have a heavy, angry heart, then the boat will be heavier and harder to control. It will move slow, turn slower, and will be inefficient. But there are some people who can’t help having a heavy angry heart, but almost always the heart will become happy while sailing. There are some people, though, like me, who when they touch the deck of a boat, almost merge bodies with the boat. They forget the angers of life, the dismay of things, and they become one with the boat; they become the brains of a larger body, they become the cells that run the body.

Oh, and then there is the minor stuff, like the need for sails and rigging and the boat itself… Maybe I should have mentioned that at first, but I will choose to believe that everyone will have already had that together…  

So, here is the order to put it in:

1.    Take large body of water
2.    Get a boat
3.    Find the wind
4.    Set the sails
5.    And enjoy!

To make sailing easier:

1.    Add sails
2.    Rigging
3.    Knowledge would be good
4.    A sunny day

These are all things that make the perfect recipe of sailing. Do you have any ingredients you’d like to add?

Gabriel Miller is a member of the Youth Travel Blogging Mentorship Program

All photos courtesy and copyright Gabriel and Tony Miller