| “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.
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.
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Jason Nabors in tenacious turtle his PDRacer-wr |
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.”
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.
As his tiny boat moved swiftly across the lake, the gulls would
lift moments before he reached them, then set down mmediately
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.
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, canoeing lakes so remote their boat
is the only occupant manmade……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.
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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,
canoeing, 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.
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Bill Moffitt with son, Paul |
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Bill Moffitt |
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.
***
[Editors note: Jessica Watson, a 16 year old female Aussie solo
sailer, is making progress on her solo around the world sail.
She is going for the record of the youngest person to sail around
the world. We wish her well.] http://www.youngestround.blogspot.com/
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