81 Best Sailing Quotes & Captions. Stuff Boaters Really Say. no texting & tacking

These ones speak to our salty hearts. In the sea of witty sayings, these verses truly touch us and we find them to be, ah, so true!

Looking for something emotional, spiritual, inspiring? Or, maybe witty, funny, feisty?

I have you covered.

We sailed hundreds of miles; I read through hundreds of quotes and picked the ones which show the many facets of this complicated and amazing life at sea.

You will also like this post: 85 Beloved Sailing Songs (and Karaoke). The Only Playlist you Need.

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81 Best Sailing Quotes

Why do you need sailing quotes? Why 81 of them! Use them whenever you need to:

Lift up your spirit.
Need something to go with that great sailing song.
Have a great thought to accompany your morning coffee.
Make a custom gift – these are excellent on cups and T-shirts.
Lighten the mood.
Say something funny before your say, “Cheers!”

Inspirational Quotes About Sailing

Sailing revealed to us the larger and, in many ways, the better side of our world. I wish I had the words to describe the feelings and emotions out on the water.

But I do not.

So, I offer to you these powerful and inspiring words of others.

1. “You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
– Christopher Columbus

2. “It’s remarkable how quickly a good and favorable wind can sweep away the maddening frustrations of shore living.”
– Ernest K. Gann

3. “Sailors, with their built-in sense of order, service and discipline, should really be running the world.”
– Nicholas Monsarrat

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81 Best Sailing Quotes & Captions. Stuff Boaters Really Say.

4. “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than those you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
– Mark Twain

5. “The wind and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigator.”
– Edmund Gibbon

6. “Who is staring at the sea is already sailing a little.”
– Paul Carvel

7. “Remember. It was a professional who built the Titanic, it was an amateur who built Noah’s Ark.”
– Vanessa Linsley

Funny Sailing Quotes

If there is one thing all boaters share, it is the sense of humor and the ability to laugh at ourselves.

These funny quotes are not always born out of fun times. But we have all been there.

And we can look back and laugh about it now.

All of our posts on: Boat Life @ No Texting & Tacking.

8. Sailing: The fine art of getting wet and becoming ill while slowly going nowhere at great expense.
– Henry Beard and Roy Mckie

9. Sorry for what I said when I was docking the boat.
– Unknown

10. If you can’t repair it, maybe it shouldn’t be on board.
– Lin and Larry Pardey

Boat life:
Pros and Cons of Living on a Boat. By Experienced Boaters.
Why We Never Missed Space, While Living on a Sailboat

11. “The best bilge pump of all is a bucket in the hands of a frightened man.”
– Butch Dalrymple-Smith

12. “Sometimes I wonder if my sailboat is thinking about me too.”
– Unknown

13. “A diesel loves her oil same as a sailor loves rum.”
– Kurt Russell (Captain Ron), Captain Ron

You might be wondering:
Can you Live on a Boat? Yes, and Now is the Right Time.
Catamaran vs Monohull: Let’s Solve This (we Lived on Both).
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14. Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit.”
– Brooks Atkinson

15. “To my crew:
Please be reasonable and do it my way.”
The Captain
– Rusty Mills

16. “When the draught of your vessel exceeds the depth of the water, you are most assuredly, aground.”
– Ian Walsh

Emotional Sailing Quotes

It is hard to introduce these next quotes, without sounding like I am trying to invent one myself.

They say that on the water, the highs are really high, and the lows are really low. It is true. We have been through quite a few challenging times on the water.

But then the highs make us forget.

All of our posts on: Boat Life @ No Texting & Tacking.

17. “The cure for anything is saltwater – sweat, tears, or the sea.”
– Isak Dinesen

18. “He who lets the sea lull him into a sense of security is in very grave danger.”
– Hammond Ines

19. “The man who never dreams, goes slowly mad.”
– Thomas Dolby

Be inspired:
45 Epic Sailing Movies We Will Watch Over and Over…
81 Best Sailing Quotes & Captions. Stuff Boaters Really Say.

20. I don’t know who named them swells. There’s nothing swell about them. They should have named them awfuls.”
– Hugo Vihlen

21. If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”
– Seneca, Roman Philosopher

Spiritual Sailing Quotes

We feel incredibly humbled on the water. Exposed, vulnerable, yet free and full of hope, forever admiring this incredible home God has created for us.

Few other times in my life, my prayers have been as sincere and my gratitude as genuine, as while sailing under the stars.

All of our posts on: Boat Life @ No Texting & Tacking.

22. “Keep us, our God; for your ocean is so wide and our boat is so small.”
– A Greek Orthodox sailor’s prayer.

23. There go the ships: [there is] that leviathan, [whom] thou hast made to play therein.
– Psalm 104:26

24. The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas.
– Ezekiel 27:25

Boat life:
Pros and Cons of Living on a Boat. By Experienced Boaters.
Why We Never Missed Space, While Living on a Sailboat

25. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.
– Luke 5:3

26. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.
– Isaiah 42:10

27. And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending upon him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth:
– Acts 10:11

28. “Sail with those who sail; travel with those who travel;”
– Divine Liturgy prayer

Feisty Sailing Quotes

Go for it – say what you want to say. Boaters are known to speak and sing from the heart.

The thing is, when our lives depend on it, and the risks and dangers are so real, there can be little room for politeness.

Ah, that’s OK, they don’t mean it.

Actually, we do.

All of our posts on: Boat Life @ No Texting & Tacking.

29. “The sea hates a coward.”
– Hugh Rawson

30. “He that will not sail till all dangers are over must never put to sea.”
– Thomas Fuller

31. “Only fools and passengers drink at sea.”
– Allan Villiers

Be inspired:
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32. “There are more sharks on the land than in the sea.”
– Neil Wheatley

33. “The right of way goes to the vessel with the least competent crew.”
– Mike Baiocchi

34. “May Thor fill your sails, to the place of vengeance!”
– Vikings, Season 2

Boat life:
Pros and Cons of Living on a Boat. By Experienced Boaters.
Why We Never Missed Space, While Living on a Sailboat

35. “Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat.”
– Jean-Paul Sartre

36. “The sea finds out everything you did wrong.”
– Francis Stokes

37. “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”
– John A. Shedd

38. “…When the storm rages fierce, Hoist the sail to the top. Oh, how merry the Storm-King appears!…”
– The Northmen, a Viking Saga

39. “Now…bring me that horizon.”
– Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean

Quotes About Pirates

Our kids’ morning would often start with climbing the mast, adjusting a sail, or dropping anchor. They spied for boats, found treasures after tourists left the beach, explored caves.

Except for the rum, I feel that our cruising life brought them as close to that childhood dream of being a pirate, as one can get.

All of our posts on: Boat Life @ No Texting & Tacking.

40. “Every generation welcomes the pirates from the last.”
– Lawrence Lessig

41. “As to hanging, it is no great hardship. For were it not for that, every cowardly fellow would turn pirate and so unfit the sea, that men of courage must starve.”
– Mary Read

42. “Some pirates achieved immortality by great deeds of cruelty or derring-do. Some achieved immortality by amassing great wealth. But the captain had long ago decided that he would, on the whole, prefer to achieve immortality by not dying.”
– Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic

Be inspired:
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43. “There is nothing so desperately monotonous as the sea; I no longer wonder at the cruelty of pirates.”
– James Russsell Lowell

44. “Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates.”
– Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi

45. “Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate.”
– Captain Jack Sparrow, “Pirates of the Caribbean”

Boating Life and Cruising Quotes

I can probably invent at least 81 quotes on boating life, myself. I probably should.

Living on a sailboat and cruising offers an endless supply of events, feelings and emotions. Sufficient to write stories, songs and books for years to come.

Yep, boat life is that unique. Just as those people said it:

All of our posts on: Boat Life @ No Texting & Tacking.

46. “It is not that life ashore is distasteful to me. But life at sea is better.”
– Sir Francis Drake, Sea Captain

47. “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.”
– William Arthur Ward

48. “Anchor as though you plan to stay for weeks, even if you intend to leave in an hour.”
– Tommy Moran

Boat life:
Pros and Cons of Living on a Boat. By Experienced Boaters.
Why We Never Missed Space, While Living on a Sailboat

49. “Only two sailors, in my experience, never ran aground. One never left port and the other was an atrocious liar.”
– Don Bamford

50. “The goal is not to sail the boat, but rather to help the boat sail herself.”
– John Rousmaniere

51. “The lovely thing about cruising is that planning usually turns out to be of little use.”
– Dom Degnon

52. “There is no better tool or equipment you can have on board than a well-trained crew.” – Larry Pardey, cruise’There is no better tool or equipment you can have on board than a well-trained crew.”
– Larry Pardey

53. “A tourist remains an outsider throughout his visit; but a sailor is part of the local scene from the moment he arrives.”
– Anne Davison

54. “To be successful at sea we must keep things simple.”
– R. D. (Pete) Culler

Best Quotes for the Galley

Almost any good kitchen quote can find its way into the galley of a boat.

I loved my galley and I loved cooking in it. But it was hot, with limited supplies and few conveniences and gadgets.

Oh, add the occasional seasickness, and do not wonder why I picked these witty quotes.

All of our posts on: Boat Life @ No Texting & Tacking.

55. “Sandwiches are wonderful. You don’t need a spoon or a plate!”
– Paul Lynde

56. “Cooking well doesn’t mean cooking fancy.”
– Julia Child

57. “She who cooks, never cleans.”
– Unknown

58. “I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.”
– W.C. Fields

Be inspired:
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59. “This evening’s forecast includes a 0% chance of me cooking.”
– Unknown

60. “Save the earth! It’s the only planet with coffee.”
– Unknown

61. “I read recipes the same way I read science fiction. I get to the end and I think, “Well, that’s not going to happen.”
– Unknown

Quotes About the Sea

This is someone else’s world. We are merely visitors.

The sea is a world with few instructions, no signs and lots of stars. It is really, really hard not to leave you with your head spinning and wanting more.

All of our posts on: Boat Life @ No Texting & Tacking.

62. “A man is never lost at sea.”
– Ernest Hemingway

63. “The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach – waiting for a gift from the sea.”
– Anne Morrow Lindbergh

64. “Most of us, I suppose, are a little nervous of the sea. No matter what its smiles may be, we doubt its friendship.”
– H.M. Tomlinson

Boat life:
Pros and Cons of Living on a Boat. By Experienced Boaters.
Why We Never Missed Space, While Living on a Sailboat

65. “There is, one knows not what sweet mystery about the sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath.”
– Herman Melville

66. “Limitless and immortal, the waters are the beginning and end of all things on earth.”
– Heinrich Zimmer

67. “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep.
The more I give thee, the more I have,
For both are infinite.”
– William Shakespeare

68. “How inappropriate it is to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Sea.”
– Arthur C. Clarke

69. “I wanted freedom, open air and adventure. I found it on the sea.”
– Alaine Gerbault

70. “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.”
– Jacques Yves Cousteau

Quotes About Fishing

Ah, the joy of catching a fish, and cooking it, and being grateful for it.

It is hard to describe.

What is even harder to describe is how hard fish are to catch and the average price per fish caught, after the initial investment of all the fishing gear.

Do not get me started!

All of our posts on: Boat Life @ No Texting & Tacking.

71. “The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.”
– Vincent Van Gogh

72. “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Give him a fishing lesson and he’ll sit in a boat drinking beer every weekend.”
– Alex Blackwell

73. “The two best times to fish is when it’s rainin’ and when it ain’t.”
– Patrick F. McManus

Be inspired:
45 Epic Sailing Movies We Will Watch Over and Over…
81 Best Sailing Quotes & Captions. Stuff Boaters Really Say.

74. “The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad.”
– A.K. Best

75. “My biggest worry is that when I’m dead and gone, my wife will sell my fishing gear for what I said I paid for it.”
– Koos Brandt

76. “Do not tell fish stories where the people know you. Particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.”
– Mark Twain

Sailing Quotes of Old

We will not be reinventing the wheel.

Here are some truths and wise words, of those who came before us. Whose eyes gazed upon those same stars, and whose feet splashed in those same waters.

We are not smarter, nor more sophisticated, nor better.

We are simply the next old.

All of our posts on: Boat Life @ No Texting & Tacking.

77. A smooth sea never made skilled mariner.
– Old English Saying

78. Bound is a boatless man.
– Viking Expression

79. You will reach your destination, even though you travel slowly.
– Old Viking saying

Boat life:
Pros and Cons of Living on a Boat. By Experienced Boaters.
Why We Never Missed Space, While Living on a Sailboat

80. Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors, take warning.
– Old Saying, unknown origin.

81. Travel far and wide and you should possess the secrets of man.
– Norse Mythology

Final Thoughts: Sailing Quotes

Wow, what a fun treasure hunt!

It took a while to collect these amazing sailing quotes and captions. I hope they cheer, inspire and console your yearning, restless spirit, as they did mine.

If you enjoyed this post, please share it. Thank you.

Fair winds, fellow dreamer.

More sailing and traveling inspiration

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Pros and Cons of Living on a Boat. By Experienced Boaters.