As I have grown and, I hope, matured, I’ve come to find more joy in giving gifts than in receiving them. Finding just the right item for each of my loved ones is a pursuit that requires attention, care and effort. The process brings me lots of joy, but it’s not always easy.
Let me reminisce a bit on some of the nautical gifts that have delighted this sailor over the years. Some came from loved ones; others I gave myself because, well, I thought they were delightful. Maybe one of them is just the gift you’ve been seeking.
- Books are big for me, whether in print or pixels. Here are three of my favorites.
The Long Way. In this memoir, Bernard Moitessier recounts his 1968-69 solo, non-stop circumnavigation-and-a-half. He writes lyrically and beautifully of his life, his trip around the world, and the sea.
“There’s no more moon,” he writes at one point. “It will return in a few days, like a smile — timid at first, then bigger and bigger.” Just the way I felt reading this book.
Also, Moitessier’s insistence on the need to treat the earth better is urgently current today despite being written half a century ago.
Sailing Alone Around the World. This is Joshua Slocum’s 1900 recounting of his own solo circumnavigation from New England aboard the Spray. Moitessier’s boat, Joshua, was, appropriately, named for Slocum. If you read only one book about sailing ever, it should be this one.
Two Years Before the Mast. is Richard Henry Dana’s account of his time on board a New England whaling ship in the Pacific starting in 1834. He recounts, among many other things, visiting California, then still part of Mexico. In one passage, he describes anchoring in a cove off the village that grew into San Francisco — in waters later filled in for development. I imagine his anchorage would be near today’s intersection of Brannan and Delancey streets.
I wonder if Dana’s description of conditions off what is today Long Beach amount to the first written description of an El Niño event.
Sailing stuff can also make good gift fodder.
- Gloves. When I remember to wear them, I tend to go through sailing gloves pretty quickly. So that’s a pretty easy choice, and not too costly. Also, a hat is nice. Tilley hats are pricey, but I’ve seen them on a lot of heads out on the water.
- Hand-bearing compass. A sailing compass can come in handy as well. The Davis Instruments model is inexpensive, but not my favorite. Many sailors swear by the hockey puck variety, so-called because of their shape. Plastimo makes one that is well-regarded.
- Sextant. One holiday season probably 30 years ago, my wife broke Christmas. She had the amazing idea to get me a sextant. I have no idea how she settled on this gift. I was a sailing fan, but I don’t recall expressing any particular interest in navigation. But sailors navigate, and Meg thought was really all she needed to know. She was right.
I had no idea how to use the thing. So the gift led to months, and then years, of joyful study, learning and use. A sextant is a fairly simple instrument, but one with infinite possibilities. To me, it contains a whiff of magic. What could be better for a gift? When I received it, I felt this sextant was the best gift given by anyone to anyone else, ever. Maybe that’s hyperbole, but I’ll stick by it.
Davis Instruments offers several inexpensive sextants under $200. They’re made of plastic, and the Davis sextant Meg gave me still works fine decades later. I have since added a more robust, and expensive, metal one to my collection, though. Metal sextants can run from $800 to thousands.
- Sailing education. Sign your sailor up for a class. Coastal navigation, maybe. Or — ehem — celestial navigation. I’ll be teaching that one in a few months. It could be part of two-part gift.
