There Be No Dragons
Reese Palley
"You may range the globe round and take ten years to do so.
Should you not like the port you are in, there is always a better port over the
horizon, or, should you tire of the pressures of land altogether, you may, like
Moitessier, choose to simply 'go round again.' You become free as no one on land
can. But you must have care and remain humble, for although the world is your
oyster, your oyster still belongs to the sea."
There Be No Dragons, says the author, was written in the
hope that those timid of the deep oceans might have their fears allayed and be encouraged
to set sail across the wine dark seas of the world. Reese Palley, by his own account
a sailor of no great skill, has managed to circle the globe, taking fifteen years to do
so. If he could do it, anyone else can too.
Sailors dream of travels to foreign and intriguing ports, but are
afraid to go because of imagined fears. But in fact it is more dangerous to sail
alongshore than across an ocean. Sailing alongshore is like falling down in your own
bathtub where statistics show that most injuries occur. Stay out of your tub, range
far from your native shore, and little will befall you.
In this witty, irreverent and challenging book, Palley explains why.
He gives practical advice on all you will need to know to go offshore. Above
all, the emphasis is on the human aspect of sailing. On getting crew, the author
tells us: "While there are ancient and accurate charts of the sea that tell in
exquisite detail what you may expect in all the great oceans, after a thousand generations
of humanity, there are still no guidelines to determine whether the crew you are signing
on be devils or angels. The fact is that you do not want either devil or angel.
What is needed on a small boat over a long passage is someone whose good qualities
do not cause your own to suffer by comparison."
Delightful stories à la Tristan Jones, culled from the author's
experiences, illustrate the practical points throughout the book. Palley's views on
sex on board can't be found in your average cruising book.
Throughout, the book reflects the author's enthusiasm for the
sailing lifestyle. He wishes to convince the timid sailors that they can go places,
and he is telling them there are no dragons beyond the far horizons.
Reese Palley is an alumnus of the New School and
the London School of Economics. After a successful career as an art dealer, Palley,
in his late fifties, decided to go sailing. He made three transatlantic crossings
and a circumnavigation in his 46-foot Ted Brewer designed sailboat Unlikely VII.
He is the author of The Porcelain Art of Edward Marshall Boehm,
Unlikely Passages and numerous articles in sailing magazines. When not at
sea, he lives with his wife Marilyn in Philadelphia and the Florida Keys.
A sailor is never really finished like a piece of toast or a steak.
A sailor is always in the living process of becoming, a condition described by
Plato as life itself.
There is too much information, too much experience, and too many
variables for any sailor to absorb in one lifetime. You are a sailor when you say
you are a sailor, not when you know this much or that much.
The core of this book is to give you enough information, but just
enough, to support a claim to sailordom, and to convince you that, with the minimums set
up herein, you are capable of taking a small boat across a large ocean.
