Hey, guess what’s not as easy as it looks? Bill and I are taking sailing lessons from MlT (it’s free for students and a guest!) and we had our first experience on the water yesterday. I was originally hesitant to take this class because I was a wee bit intimidated by the pre-class handout. There’s so much terminology and lingo and knots. Not to mention the phrase “death roll or capsize” was used a fair number of times. Bill kept saying, “Ah come on, it’ll be fun! Just relax.”
After yesterday I’m no longer afraid of drowning while trapped in a soggy sail below an overturned boat. But it’s not really the peaceful float on a river that either of us imagined it to be. It’s work! When we climbed back on dock, both of us had wobbly legs — not sea legs, but tired tired crouching muscles. And it’s a lot of thinking too. Maybe that will improve once we have a better feel for things, but right now my brain is constantly going “wind blowing this direction; need to tack; tack by turning into the wind; push the tiller away; scoot over; need the wind to blow across the side of the boat; wind blowing this direction.”
It didn’t help, I don’t think, that there was no wind yesterday. That may seem like a perfect time to learn, but it’s not. It’s just frustrating. It’s like learning how to drive a car without turning it on. Put it in neutral and a guy pushes from behind. It won’t really teach you anything. Except patience and humility.
I think when we sail around the world (as was the reason for taking lessons, of course), we may hire a skipper and a crew and we’ll concentrate on fishing and cooking. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Magrilless 
Sounds like fun but my idea of “sailing” is sitting on a balcony looking over the side and waiting for room service to bring something wonderfully tasty to my cabin! Guess my sense of adventure is hibernating! Love to you all!
The best part of sailing is capsizing. And since that happens when you aren't very good at sailing, I was never really all that motivated to get any better :-).