In quantum mechanics, there is Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle: it is impossible to know the position and the velocity of a particle at the same time. As soon as we measure one of these two properties, the other one magically vanishes, melts into uncertainty.

Similarly, I postulated the Sailing Uncertainty Principle: it is possible to plan the precise sailing date in advance, or the precise route, but it is fundamentally impossible to plan both at the same time.

You just can’t plan a sailing trip beforehand, because— well, because of the uncertainty involved, and because the situation is out of your control anyway. A sailboat moves driven by the wind and the waves, by the tides and the currents,—emphatically not by her skipper and her crew.

Many, very many people find this situation humiliating, and are just unable to accept it. Sailboats are a bad match for those people. Let them buy a fast motorboat. Even better, let them stay on land.

Sailors don’t try to cheat the nature, to subjugate her to their own will. They accept her the way she is.

In this sense, sailing embodies the fundamental principle of slow life: accept your life for what it is. Don’t fight it. Go with the grain, not against.

Some time ago I reviewed The Coast of Summer by the British journalist Anthony Bailey. That was before I came up with the concept of slow life, so I hadn’t realized back then that was exactly what the book was about.

The sailor is fully dependent on the wind and the current.

This is his freedom.

This is his happiness.