Sailing ~ What a Nonsense Word

We sail on the sea, we sail through the air and we set sail. What is clearly nonsense is the sailing through the air part. Unless of, course, you are in an aeroplane. Then it is more likely that the plane is sailing and you are the passenger. Still, we mustn’t get too pedantic here.

The other alternative is that some object comes sailing through the air and klonks you on the head in which case, it is still not you sailing through the air so its nonsense again. But I have every confidence you may have the bruises to prove that you were struck by something sailing through the air. Bad luck but it still doesn’t make the sailing bit any more accurate unless, of course, the object actually has sails attached to guide its flight.

This is all enough to make a person set sail, right? Now if you take today’s meaning of the word you are probably about to board a cruise ship and sail off over the wide blue ocean. Strictly speaking, even this isn’t quite accurate because most cruise ships that I’ve seen lately have had engines somewhere in the bowels of the ship to power the cruise liner along.

Now perhaps I’m on the wrong tack here and you will give me a bit of leeway before you set sail and get stuck into me for being too pedantic again.

Then we have sailing Majorca or sailing the Caribbean. Funny, I always thought we sailed in a yacht or a skiff powered by sail? The idea of the Caribbean setting sail around the world leads me to ask which island is leaving the group?

Absolute nonsense is quite true but that’s what some people are lucky enough to be able to do. Just ask them and they will tell you that they have been sailing the Caribbean or Majorca. Perhaps it’s just my imagination or misunderstanding of the English language.

Until we learn to sail properly it would probably be a good idea to remain a land lubber.

But if you were intent on learning to sail I suggest you try doing it first in a dinghy and work your way up through the different types of sailing vessels.

And I would strongly recommend sailing on water. Just ask anyone who has tried sailing through the air without an aeroplane wrapped around them. Sailing on water began eons ago and if you want to learn to sail properly, I suggest practising on calm water first before setting sail over the horizon into the wide blue yonder.

And that is not a nonsense sailing suggestion.