“There is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” ~ Kenneth Grahame, THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
For as long as I can remember, I have loved just about anything to do with boats and the sea. Neither the size of the boat nor the immensity of the body of water makes any difference really. When I’m on a boat, the effect on me is nearly always the same. The grind of everyday life is left ashore and I know in my soul that I am where I was meant to be.
A sailboat is best of all, I think. I’m an inveterate dreamer and a sailboat shouts the quixotic spirit, evoking vicarious passages to atoll-ringed South Sea islands and other exotic ports-of-call. It takes merely an afternoon at the helm of a small sloop on an inland lake to set my imagination working like this.
The wistfulness is only part of it, though. There is also a Zen-like aspect – that moment when you sense the perfect synchronization of the boat, the waves, and the wind. You feel it as you steer. And you know you, too, are a part of that harmony.
