Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who died this week of brain cancer at age 77, leaves behind a monumental legacy and will be remembered for many reasons—among them his passion for sailing.

Kennedy sailed as recently as two weeks ago on his beloved boat Mya, finding solace on the water during the last days of his life. “The last time I sailed with him a couple of weeks ago, there were fewer words, but you knew that off the pier, out on the sea, everything was OK,” said Kennedy’s nephew Tim Shriver, according to a story in USA Today.

Shriver spoke of his uncle’s competitive spirit and love of racing, shared by his older sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who died Aug. 11 at the age of 88. “For them, you just wanted to race every Saturday and Sunday. Why would you be on the shore? Why would you be sitting around eating lunch or watching television when you could be racing?”

The graveness of Kennedy’s condition was apparent this May, when he did not participate in the annual Figawi regatta, a three-day race between Hyannis Port, on Cape Cod, and Nantucket, an island off the Massachusetts coast. Kennedy had rarely missed the race in half a century, even participating in 2008 just days after undergoing the brain biopsy that led to his cancer diagnosis.

Kennedy will be remembered for many reasons more important than his love of sailing, of course. He was a tireless champion of the less fortunate, the rare politician able to unite policymakers across the partisan aisle. His legislative achievements spanned areas including healthcare and education, civil rights and labor.

But sailing was an integral part of his life. Kennedy withdrew from the public eye for a time after Robert Kennedy’s assassination, taking to the sea to grieve the loss of his brother. For Kennedy, sailing provided both a channel for his competitive energy and a respite from life’s stresses and challenges.

Though he was born into one of the nation’s wealthiest families, Kennedy felt the same pull shared by legions of sailors, from those racing nine-foot dinghies to captains of luxury yachts. He understood the lure of the ocean, appreciated its restorative appeal shared by anyone who would rather be on a boat than just about anywhere. And in that way, Ted Kennedy was one of us.

Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry invoked Kennedy’s love of sailing during a moving memorial service at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston on Friday night. The day after Kennedy’s death, Kerry said, he looked out at the water. Noticing it was a beautiful day for sailing, Kerry thought to himself that Kennedy “was on a schooner now,” reunited with late members of his family.

“Sail on, my friend, sail on,” Kerry said.

Fair winds, Senator Kennedy.