David Crosby — Harmony at Sea
When rock legend David Crosby passed away on January 19, he left behind an enormous musical legacy, including his stirring harmonies with bandmates Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young. Besides his renowned musical harmonies, he also found harmony at sea. This led to many miles of sailing and endless sailing friendships formed aboard his famed 59-ft LOD wooden schooner Mayan.
Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz.
After publishing our online story of his passing, we received many comments highlighting how much his music resonated naturally with sailors, including CSN songs Southern Cross, Wooden Ships, Lee Shore, and many more. The songs are anthems forming the soundtrack of many sailors’ lives.
Reader Bill Huber wrote a comment reflecting the thoughts of many: “I had to look up, read the lyrics, and listen to Southern Cross, which I always associate with CS&N. I imagined it to be describing a passage on Mayan. (It looks like her on the record cover… remember those?) I fell down this whirlpool thinking about David Crosby, Mayan, Southern Cross and playing it (on the sound system) when we crossed the equator on a passage from Eureka to Fatu Hiva. Thanks to David Crosby for the harmonies to the soundtrack of my youth, and wooden boats. Fair winds and following seas.”
Crosby’s connection to the sea and sailing often appeared in his music, but his actual sailing life, while tightly woven and well known along the coast of California, was less well known to his worldwide fan base. His dad was an Oscar-winning Hollywood producer, so he grew up in Southern California learning to sail in small boats like many other SoCal kids. It was there he first found freedom and escape at sea.
While his sailing life started on other boats, the schooner Mayan is his sailing story. It was an escape that came to fruition in his adult life when he bought the Alden-designed schooner at age 28, in 1969. Sailing aboard her was what he would do for more than 40 years to escape from the demands of the music world and to recuperate from concert tours.
Read more about David Crosby’s inspiring sailing and musical life in this month’s issue of Latitude 38.
It has always amazed me that CSN- having had such local connections- never got, nor gets any airplay on local FM radio stations. Their music is so beautiful, and what so many of us grew up on.