Favorite Nautical Sayings and Quotes

Whew

It is best not to confuse a poop deck or poop cabin with a head, when nature calls.

Poop deck - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Sea-Fever"

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

John Masefield

Samuel Langhorne Clemens

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain

Hold Her Down Newt!

When we were healed over and hiked out hauling a** in a big wind my Dad would scream out, "Hold her down Newt!" with the biggest grin ever on his face! Yeah just like that!

"Three sheets to to the wind" The fastest way to stop a 3 masted square rigger running down wind was to release all sheets and let the sails flap. The ship swerved like a drunken sailor.

Is The Sun Passed The Yardarm?

That reminds me, every afternoon my Dad would look at his watch and pensively ask, "Is the sun passed the yardarm?"

Wiki.answers says, "It's an old sailing term: the yards on a ship are the horizontal timbers or spars mounted on the masts from which the square sails are hung; and the yardarm is the tapered end of the yard.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the sun would reach the height of the end of the yard (the yardarm) at around 11 am - signaling the time for the morning tipple of grog (watered-down rum)."

Had my Dad known that bit of trivia he could have had his afternoon libation before lunch!!!

tipple of grog (watered-down rum)."


Grog - named after "old grog", adm Ed Vernon, who wore a gaugram (sp?) seacoat, and made his sailors add a slice of lime to their rum and water to "freshen " the often green (like in algae) water. Little did he know, it helped ward off scurvy too.

And I always wondered why folks would want to ruin a perfectly fine Corona with a slice of lime!!

...and I always thought a perfectly fine Corona was one with a slice of lime!

Confirmed! As written on the wall in Pussar's in Tortola. Great dark and stormies

Indeed! Took a whaler over from the Bitter end - whole 'nother story - with another couple. It was a long ride home..... I think we arrived via Puerto Rico, they had a hand held GPS, ha! Of course, it had nothing whatever to do with the consumption of that very excellent rum.....

"Son of a gun". Give us your thoughts?

Not Peter Gun's son

Gun = cannon on deck.

Son of a Gun = Father not known; Mom and Gun present at birth; hence Son of a Gun.

Wiki does a better job, with multiple explanations.

Son of a gun - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas. For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction. Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing; And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes."
- Kahlil Gibran

Boat owners celebrate two times in their lives; when they purchase their boat, and when they sell it.