The three most important products to have on a sailboat...each has  multiple uses.  There can never be enought of the one in the middle  on-board.

Cruisers go through a life-bending transformation as they move from land-based living to full-time cruising.   The metamorphosis begins with real and imagined anxieties, fears, dangers and unknowns.  The physical part of adjusting to cruising soon wanes, and cultural and lifestyle issues become front-and-center…sometimes to the point of questioning the reason(s) for being out there.  Slowly and gradually, the sunsets take center stage, stress melts, and the winds of the oceans mold the cruiser into a human more connected with nature, more self-confident, and more self sufficient.

To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea ... cruising, it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.

"I've always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can't afford it." What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of security. And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine -- and before we know it our lives are gone.  What does a man
need -- really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's -- in the material sense, and we know it.

But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by, the dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.

Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?

by Sterling Hayden, Actor, Author, Wanderer
  

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
by Mark Twain, Author

There were two twin brothers named Joe and John. Joe was an old salt and was the owner of a dilapidated old boat. It came to pass that John's lovely wife died the same day that Joe's boat sank in San Francisco Bay.

A few days later a kindly old lady met Joe on the street and mistaking him for John said, "I am sorry for your great loss. You must feel terrible."

"Ohhh, Hell NO!," replied Joe. "Fact is I'm sorta glad to get rid of her. She was a rotten old thing from the beginning. Her bottom was all shriveled up, she smelled like a dead fish, and she was always losing her water. She had a crack in the back and a pretty big hole in the front too. The hole got bigger every time I used her and she leaked like crazy. After a while, it got hard to keep her upright."

"But what really finished her off was these four tough guys who rented her for a good time," Joe continued. "I warned them that she wasn't any good, but they all wanted a go with her anyway. The dammed fools all tried to get on her at the same time and it was too much for the old girl. While they were trying to get into various positions, she split right up the middle."

The old woman fainted!

My soul is full of longing
For the secret of the sea
And the heart of the great ocean
Sends a thrilling pulse through me

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poet

As I cast off for that very first time,
The "rope" in my hand has now become "line".
And hauling the sails to the top of the mast,
That "rope", now a "halyard" holds strong, taught and fast.
Then sailing in brisk winds full force on a beat.
The sails are trimmed in by that "rope" that's a "sheet".
And now at my anchorage with sails safely stowed,
I trust in that "rope" that now serves as a "rode".
Through all my life I will never lose hope,
Of a reason or time to play with a rope. 
  

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear.
So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won't matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.
It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.
What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.
It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.

by Michael Josephson