I enjoy sailing, but I cannot describe my enjoyment. I can sit at the tiller for hours on end, just revelling in the feel of it as the rudder clips through the water and the wind tries to throw the boat off course. I love to feel the wind on my cheeks and the occasional wetness of salt spray, to feel the boat heeling and see and hear the water hissing past, to watch the canvas straining. I get a fresh thrill out of every time we come about on to another tack, every time we have a hard beat to make our mooring or the entrance to the creek, every time I can let the sheet run and give the mainsail full scope before a following wind.
And there it is, said in a few lines; but each line, almost every word, means hours of sheer enjoyment. Others to their ponies, their racing cars, their pictures and their music. To me all these things come together in a boat under sail.
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