Hey, everyone!
I'm writing a story that follows a sixteen year old who lives in a coastal town, and has a passion for sailing. What can you tell me about it, and what would give it a realistic feel to it? Anything you feel I should know or authors tend to get wrong? :)
Thank you in advance, for reading!
–L.C.
Ok, so I'll give this a shot, because I sail sometimes.
People tend to write sailing as a really dramatic ordeal. It's really not, sometimes we just sail for a few hours and chill.
Rigging a boat is pretty hard to do, I'm not the best sailor but I've seen more experienced sailors have trouble.
Hope I could help!
In other words, it's tying a certain knot, moving the sail into the wind, and kicking back?
Sometimes, if the wind's pretty calm. I know a guy who got in trouble for going out alone and falling asleep.
Hi, guys!
Thank you for the replies, I really appreciate it. I was just trying to come up with a couple more questions regarding this topic before I replied again! :)
So here's what I've got:
- How hard is it to steer a small boat?
- What do you normally pack when you go out?
- Have you ever capsized? If not, have you ever worried you would? Is it scary? How scary is boating in general?
- How far would you say you'd get if sailing for about an hour? (Let's, for simplicity's sake assume conditions are good.)
- Have you ever been out in a storm? What is it like?
- This question is a bit more complicated, but bear with me. Let's say you're trying to get from Point A to Point B, You're at point A, and point B is north of your location. The wind is blowing East. How??? Do you just wait for the wind to blow north??? Is there something specific you're supposed to do???
- Do you ever sail alone? Are you supposed to do that?
- What do you do while you're on the boat? Do you read, write, do some pondering?
- How enjoyable is the experience, overall?
Sorry if these questions seem very… dumb? I guess? I've only ever been canoeing, and I'm pretty scared of the ocean myself so I don't know crap about this… 😂 Thank you for reading, I hope your day is great!
—L.C.
I'll try to answer some of these:
Yeah, I've capsized. The first time I did it, I was a little scared, not that much. The second time around, it was fine. After a few times, it's just pretty fun to do. Unless it's cold out. (once we capsized when it was cold and it took like a few hours for me to feel my fingers). Boating's not that scary, overall.
I've been out in the beginning of a storm, but I go to a sailing camp, and we're not really allowed to sail in a storm, if there's thunder/lightning, we're in for the day. But if it's just lots of wind, it's really fun. You can go really fast, and if the waves are big enough, you bounce up and down a bit.
It's really fun, would totally recommend.
Hello, Ash!
Thank you so much for helping out and replying! It's great to know this stuff, not just for writing but also just to broaden my horizons and learn about new things. So yeah! Thank you! I hope you have a great day!
—L.C.