What’s different about 2012? It’s a leap year so the actual solstice is on June 20th and not the usual 21st. Plus we just had a solar eclipse in Northwestern US but perhaps most importantly, the Mayan solar calendar suggests the world will end on the solstice in 2012! You’d better go sailing now. Actually, that’s an exaggeration but Mayan scholars suggest something dramatic is predicted and, either way, it wouldn’t hurt to fit in a few more days of sailing. You just never know.
Summer Sailstice began as a tribute to sailing and is celebrated on the weekend closest to the solstice for many reasons. The solstice marks the start of summer, the end of the school year and for most of the Northern Hemisphere the start of the traditional sailing season. The tropics may be dodging a few hurricanes but, regardless, there’s still plenty of good sailing South of the Tropic of Cancer. And to the North? People in Alaska or Spitsbergen, Norway have sunlight for 24 hours so it’s the perfect time to sail. Plus the sun is what helped the first sailors find their way around the planet as they traveled under sail to populate distant lands.
One of the best reasons to have a sailing celebration on the solstice is, as it gains a critical mass of participation, all sailors get to take a real sailing vacation day on the longest day of the year. Some years the actual solstice lands on a weekend but more likely it’s a weekday and a day to go sailing. To help that happen you can download this note to submit to your boss explaining why your sailing practice should be respected and entitle you to a day off of work. If you are the boss close the office and take everyone sailing.
With the launch of all those GPS satellites the traditional need for the sun for navigation has been diminished but that hasn’t changed anyone’s enjoyment of sunny summer sailing. GPS may help tell you where you are but they won’t give you a tan. So, though we need the sun less for practical purposes – and the same may be true of sailing – the idea of celebrating on the solstice is to give all people of the world a marker on the calendar to recognize and celebrate sailing. It’s an opportunjity for us all to pay tribute to its long history under the sun and the multitude of places and ways to participate. Enjoy it – before the world ends.
A good year to sail away?
