West Wight Potter Owners Home Port _______________________________________________________________________________________________ |
Alone With the Sea!
“Alone, alone, all, all alone, alone on a wide wide sea!” Samuel T. Coleridge
To sail on a beam reach, the sea a silvered road stretching your wake until it reaches the moon,
hanging on a blackened sky…… to hear the waves lapping gently against the waterline as you cut
silently through a warm night, lit only by the stars. To watch gulls and sea birds dance above,
dolphins lift gracefully alongside, keeping pace with your hull speed, rising and falling with the
waves. To feel the wind on your face, the warming sun, the rains, even the cold as you paddle, row
or sail. This is the magic of boating solo,…solitary, bringing solitude and solace. The words have
the same root, they carry the same healing power to those who embrace them.
Sunset Sailing
Yes, I have seen waves washing over decks, felt the surge of the sails as the winds catch them and
suddenly the boat leaps and bounds, like an animal unleashed to run and play. I too have felt what
you feel to some degree. My memories are wonderful, but I will never know the joy nor experience
the freedom of the solo sailor, alone on the wide, wide sea. Mine are shared memories, and
wonderful as they may be, shared. I have never sailed alone.
What must it be like, I think, to feel the oneness with the sea, the rivers, the waters of the Gods who
guard them? The solo sailor knows and that, I think, is why he or she sails alone.
John Welsford in his new edition of the Backyard Boatbuilder, soon to be released, says it far better
than I, “There’s something about water, soothes the nerves and helps relax the body, and on this
night Lake Rotorua was perfect. Bright moonlight. Mirror calm reflecting the lights from the city, 10
km. away, and gentle glows from the windows of the homes on the water’s edge. …..So peaceful,
the few sounds carrying across the water served to accentuate the quietness rather than disturb
it……I was soon stroking along at a relaxed 22 strokes a minute, the long double track of whorls left
by the spoon blades clear in the moonlight and the wake like a clear, shiny track through the ruffles
being painted on the waves by the tiny remains of the daytime breeze…….I could feel the tension
just slipping away. The loveliness of the night was companionship enough, the regular swing of the
oars hypnotic.”
John Welsford Rowing
Why do men and women face and challenge the seas alone? Solo circumnavigation or simply
sailing in your local pond or lake? The lonely fisherman, casting a plopping lure along the water’s
shore, only to release every fish he or she catches? The paddlers cutting a path through marsh
grasses, moose and herons for company, the kayakers crashing head first over waterfalls and rocks?
What do they share as a common bond? It is the solitude, the aloneness that binds them.
My husband, who has shared his love of water and wind with me, is often a solitary sailor but not
often an eloquent one. I often ask how he feels about boating which he loves, but get few answers.
He surprised me with one of great beauty this past weekend. Recounting sailing his Two Paw dinghy
in Kansas this year during sea gull migration, he told of launching her on a small lake where
thousands of gulls rested, spaced evenly every so many feet apart over the lake’s entire surface.
Seagulls
As his tiny boat moved swiftly across the lake, the gulls would lift moments before he reached them,
then set down imediately behind him. He described it as a ballet of wings, rising, falling, rising,
falling, the entire length of his crossing, his boat the center of fluttering wings. I could see them,
hear them in my mind, share the image, but it was the solitary sailor who saw them.
Perhaps the water is their cathedral, the winds their choir, the waves whisper their prayer. I think
there is no closer bond with our Creator than the beauty of the nature and elements that surround us.
How you worship may take many forms, but I believe those that boat form a spiritual bond with the
very winds and waters they challenge. They may not say so, they may not realize it is true, but they
sail alone because we are intruders. The solitude when shared is simply no longer theirs, no longer
solo, no longer alone.
I am a land bound person. No matter that I can briefly share a sea bound life, I cannot truly become
one as the solo sailor does with the water. I first saw a sail boat, first realized the magic when I was
twenty years old. Imagine, to have never seen a sail boat until you are twenty! I had seen fishing
boats, john boats, ski boats, but never seen a sail boat. One night, long, long ago, a dear friend in
New Orleans said, “I want to take you to see something magical, where I go and sit alone. My
favorite place.” I could not imagine…it was two or three a.m. We went to the New Orleans Yacht
Club.
Sailboats at anchor
The boats sat, gleaming whitely in the faint dock lights. No one was awake, no one walked the
docks, just the boats and the night. But they were not silent. The boats sang, their lines danced, their
masts and halyards played a symphony unlike any music I had ever heard, as they gently rocked on
the water. My friend did not have to further explain. Silently, I shared a very private moment, a
moment of solitude. The memory of sitting in a cockpit listening to the riggings sing has never left
me.
The boats sing and talk when no one is there. The waters and waves break, cascade, singing and
talking as well. The wind, the water, the rocks all have their stories to tell. The solitary boater hears
them and listens to their words. The ancient poets wrote of the sirens that called to the sailor,
enticing the unaware to the waiting rocks. Perhaps I do not believe in the ancient myths, yet I
believe in the voices from the winds and waters, calling the sailor who will listen.
Many boating friends have shared their stories with me of solitary boating. Sailing through acres of
drifting jelly fish, kayaking towering valleys of stone, canoing lakes so remote their boat is the only
occupant man made……these are the stories of solitary boaters. But there is another story they have
often shared with me, the story sometimes behind their solitary boating and there lies the solace.
For many of us, the demons live not in the seas, as did Coleridge’s, but in our lives.
Boats, no matter how small, possess healing powers that overcome powerful demons. Illness,
cancer, loss of loved ones, failed businesses, failed marriages, stresses of work or family, these are
demons often beyond our control. Many of us turn to boats, to sailing, canoing, fishing, for the
respite and tranquility that allows us to escape for some space of time, There in our solitude we find
our salvation. There we take some control as we make the adjustments that allow us to ride the
elements of wind and water in our crafts, stroke the waters to carry us downstream or even drift
lazily on a slow current going nowhere.
John Welsford commented to me,“Sailing solo totally fills the mind. There is a lot to occupy the
sailor with managing the boat, thinking about sails and setting and maintaining a course, feeling
and reacting to the wind. So constantly mindful of anchorages and boltholes, the boat, the weather
and the waves that it completely occupies one both mentally and physically. The tasks leave no
room for the worry and the stress that infests our lives, just the real and the present. The world
becomes both very small and absolutely infinite. It is a time for connection to a reality that is
immense, immediate, timeless and humbling. A precious and very powerfully healing thing.”
How powerful is that healing, how strong that will to sail alone, to know that solitude? Ask Bill
Moffitt, builder of Embers Watch, veteran sailor, father of sons that sail and build in his footsteps.
Today I received a note from Bill to let me know his Michalak designed Billsboat would be featured
this weekend in Jim’s newsletter. How important is this? Most important, for it means Bill will once
again sail alone.
Several years ago Bill’s vision began to deteriorate so badly that he could only sail with a
companion, his sons or a close friend to assist. “Why do I sail solo? I don’t, at least not anymore, but
I may once again.
Over the past few years I could not even hold a good course without a bold, prominent object to
steer towards, something not always available. I soon found I needed help to avoid Braille boating,
bumper boating from shore to object to whatever.”
In April 2009 Bill had a corneal transplant in one eye and the plan is for a second in February 2010.
He said, “I may well be able to see enough to return to solo sailing. Betting on the outcome, I have
asked Jim Michalak to design for me a 15 foot solo cruiser with a cabin for one and a six foot cockpit
that could be used with another. I can be independent again.”
“Why do I want to be on my own?” Bill added, “Well, I have to admit that these few years of forced
close quarter companionship has not been as bad as I expected. I had my sons or a friend with me
and a lot of that bonding stuff took place, the good kind. But I have always been independent by
nature, whimsical in my choices, even impulsive on my own. I want to return to that aspect of sailing.
If Jim’s design allows me to do that, yet still has a 1600 pound capacity should I have been
converted to the “dark side” of sociability, then it will be a great boat. Here’s hoping the “ayes”
have it!’
Aye, aye, Bill Moffitt. As you close your letters, here too is “Un Abrazo” and wishes for you to sail
alone.
Alone, alone, all, all alone, alone on a wide wide sea.
Shared memories, while wonderful are not enough. The sirens keep calling the sailor to the seas.
The winds carry their song, no matter how far.
Jackie Monies
m_monies@yahoo.com
“Alone, alone, all, all alone, alone on a wide wide sea!” Samuel T. Coleridge
To sail on a beam reach, the sea a silvered road stretching your wake until it reaches the moon,
hanging on a blackened sky…… to hear the waves lapping gently against the waterline as you cut
silently through a warm night, lit only by the stars. To watch gulls and sea birds dance above,
dolphins lift gracefully alongside, keeping pace with your hull speed, rising and falling with the
waves. To feel the wind on your face, the warming sun, the rains, even the cold as you paddle, row
or sail. This is the magic of boating solo,…solitary, bringing solitude and solace. The words have
the same root, they carry the same healing power to those who embrace them.
Sunset Sailing
Yes, I have seen waves washing over decks, felt the surge of the sails as the winds catch them and
suddenly the boat leaps and bounds, like an animal unleashed to run and play. I too have felt what
you feel to some degree. My memories are wonderful, but I will never know the joy nor experience
the freedom of the solo sailor, alone on the wide, wide sea. Mine are shared memories, and
wonderful as they may be, shared. I have never sailed alone.
What must it be like, I think, to feel the oneness with the sea, the rivers, the waters of the Gods who
guard them? The solo sailor knows and that, I think, is why he or she sails alone.
John Welsford in his new edition of the Backyard Boatbuilder, soon to be released, says it far better
than I, “There’s something about water, soothes the nerves and helps relax the body, and on this
night Lake Rotorua was perfect. Bright moonlight. Mirror calm reflecting the lights from the city, 10
km. away, and gentle glows from the windows of the homes on the water’s edge. …..So peaceful,
the few sounds carrying across the water served to accentuate the quietness rather than disturb
it……I was soon stroking along at a relaxed 22 strokes a minute, the long double track of whorls left
by the spoon blades clear in the moonlight and the wake like a clear, shiny track through the ruffles
being painted on the waves by the tiny remains of the daytime breeze…….I could feel the tension
just slipping away. The loveliness of the night was companionship enough, the regular swing of the
oars hypnotic.”
John Welsford Rowing
Why do men and women face and challenge the seas alone? Solo circumnavigation or simply
sailing in your local pond or lake? The lonely fisherman, casting a plopping lure along the water’s
shore, only to release every fish he or she catches? The paddlers cutting a path through marsh
grasses, moose and herons for company, the kayakers crashing head first over waterfalls and rocks?
What do they share as a common bond? It is the solitude, the aloneness that binds them.
My husband, who has shared his love of water and wind with me, is often a solitary sailor but not
often an eloquent one. I often ask how he feels about boating which he loves, but get few answers.
He surprised me with one of great beauty this past weekend. Recounting sailing his Two Paw dinghy
in Kansas this year during sea gull migration, he told of launching her on a small lake where
thousands of gulls rested, spaced evenly every so many feet apart over the lake’s entire surface.
Seagulls
As his tiny boat moved swiftly across the lake, the gulls would lift moments before he reached them,
then set down imediately behind him. He described it as a ballet of wings, rising, falling, rising,
falling, the entire length of his crossing, his boat the center of fluttering wings. I could see them,
hear them in my mind, share the image, but it was the solitary sailor who saw them.
Perhaps the water is their cathedral, the winds their choir, the waves whisper their prayer. I think
there is no closer bond with our Creator than the beauty of the nature and elements that surround us.
How you worship may take many forms, but I believe those that boat form a spiritual bond with the
very winds and waters they challenge. They may not say so, they may not realize it is true, but they
sail alone because we are intruders. The solitude when shared is simply no longer theirs, no longer
solo, no longer alone.
I am a land bound person. No matter that I can briefly share a sea bound life, I cannot truly become
one as the solo sailor does with the water. I first saw a sail boat, first realized the magic when I was
twenty years old. Imagine, to have never seen a sail boat until you are twenty! I had seen fishing
boats, john boats, ski boats, but never seen a sail boat. One night, long, long ago, a dear friend in
New Orleans said, “I want to take you to see something magical, where I go and sit alone. My
favorite place.” I could not imagine…it was two or three a.m. We went to the New Orleans Yacht
Club.
Sailboats at anchor
The boats sat, gleaming whitely in the faint dock lights. No one was awake, no one walked the
docks, just the boats and the night. But they were not silent. The boats sang, their lines danced, their
masts and halyards played a symphony unlike any music I had ever heard, as they gently rocked on
the water. My friend did not have to further explain. Silently, I shared a very private moment, a
moment of solitude. The memory of sitting in a cockpit listening to the riggings sing has never left
me.
The boats sing and talk when no one is there. The waters and waves break, cascade, singing and
talking as well. The wind, the water, the rocks all have their stories to tell. The solitary boater hears
them and listens to their words. The ancient poets wrote of the sirens that called to the sailor,
enticing the unaware to the waiting rocks. Perhaps I do not believe in the ancient myths, yet I
believe in the voices from the winds and waters, calling the sailor who will listen.
Many boating friends have shared their stories with me of solitary boating. Sailing through acres of
drifting jelly fish, kayaking towering valleys of stone, canoing lakes so remote their boat is the only
occupant man made……these are the stories of solitary boaters. But there is another story they have
often shared with me, the story sometimes behind their solitary boating and there lies the solace.
For many of us, the demons live not in the seas, as did Coleridge’s, but in our lives.
Boats, no matter how small, possess healing powers that overcome powerful demons. Illness,
cancer, loss of loved ones, failed businesses, failed marriages, stresses of work or family, these are
demons often beyond our control. Many of us turn to boats, to sailing, canoing, fishing, for the
respite and tranquility that allows us to escape for some space of time, There in our solitude we find
our salvation. There we take some control as we make the adjustments that allow us to ride the
elements of wind and water in our crafts, stroke the waters to carry us downstream or even drift
lazily on a slow current going nowhere.
John Welsford commented to me,“Sailing solo totally fills the mind. There is a lot to occupy the
sailor with managing the boat, thinking about sails and setting and maintaining a course, feeling
and reacting to the wind. So constantly mindful of anchorages and boltholes, the boat, the weather
and the waves that it completely occupies one both mentally and physically. The tasks leave no
room for the worry and the stress that infests our lives, just the real and the present. The world
becomes both very small and absolutely infinite. It is a time for connection to a reality that is
immense, immediate, timeless and humbling. A precious and very powerfully healing thing.”
How powerful is that healing, how strong that will to sail alone, to know that solitude? Ask Bill
Moffitt, builder of Embers Watch, veteran sailor, father of sons that sail and build in his footsteps.
Today I received a note from Bill to let me know his Michalak designed Billsboat would be featured
this weekend in Jim’s newsletter. How important is this? Most important, for it means Bill will once
again sail alone.
Several years ago Bill’s vision began to deteriorate so badly that he could only sail with a
companion, his sons or a close friend to assist. “Why do I sail solo? I don’t, at least not anymore, but
I may once again.
Over the past few years I could not even hold a good course without a bold, prominent object to
steer towards, something not always available. I soon found I needed help to avoid Braille boating,
bumper boating from shore to object to whatever.”
In April 2009 Bill had a corneal transplant in one eye and the plan is for a second in February 2010.
He said, “I may well be able to see enough to return to solo sailing. Betting on the outcome, I have
asked Jim Michalak to design for me a 15 foot solo cruiser with a cabin for one and a six foot cockpit
that could be used with another. I can be independent again.”
“Why do I want to be on my own?” Bill added, “Well, I have to admit that these few years of forced
close quarter companionship has not been as bad as I expected. I had my sons or a friend with me
and a lot of that bonding stuff took place, the good kind. But I have always been independent by
nature, whimsical in my choices, even impulsive on my own. I want to return to that aspect of sailing.
If Jim’s design allows me to do that, yet still has a 1600 pound capacity should I have been
converted to the “dark side” of sociability, then it will be a great boat. Here’s hoping the “ayes”
have it!’
Aye, aye, Bill Moffitt. As you close your letters, here too is “Un Abrazo” and wishes for you to sail
alone.
Alone, alone, all, all alone, alone on a wide wide sea.
Shared memories, while wonderful are not enough. The sirens keep calling the sailor to the seas.
The winds carry their song, no matter how far.
Jackie Monies
m_monies@yahoo.com
| Alone With the Sea! By Jackie Monies |
