Being a self motivated history nut, I have been found poking about in SBO archives. Todays dive took me back into the SBO Forum archives. I think I found a gem in the dust .
In February 2010 a sailor, Douglas Pollard joined SBO and shared his love for his new Albin Vega 27.
While this all sounds very normal, what sparked my interest was this essay, written by Douglas and posted in October 2019. I reposted it here for your discovery. Sailing the vast sky
In February 2010 a sailor, Douglas Pollard joined SBO and shared his love for his new Albin Vega 27.
Feb 13, 2010#1
HI all, I am the proud new owner of an Albin Vega 27 named Sea
Legs. I had been searching for suitable boat for an old man to to
single hand and for an old couple to go back to the Bahamas and the
Florida keys in. WE live in Virginia so will sail The Chesapeake bay and
likely some in the Carolina Sounds.
While this all sounds very normal, what sparked my interest was this essay, written by Douglas and posted in October 2019. I reposted it here for your discovery. Sailing the vast sky
Sailing the vast sky by Douglas G. Pollard Sr. |
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I'll tell you something about sailboats. Sailing is both the worst thing I have ever done and one of the finest. I sail year round in the blustery cold of late fall and the calm of sticky summer heat. There are times when I am so miserable, I cannot imagine why I do it. I have said hundreds of times why the hell do I punish myself like this in this misery of high winds cold and driving rain, I am wet shivering and often tired, and can find nothing of pleasure in it. Then I go out sailing on a beautiful day when there is a nice quiet breeze. I fall in love with my boat and the sea all over again. My little boat becomes my fellow adventurer a silent listener, that finds no fault with my foolish musings. There is no motor running, little sound, but that of water gently gurgling beneath us. Just we two, "Sealegs" and I listen to the gentle whisper of the wind and slight percussion of the wavelets lightly patting her buttocks with the tenderness of a lover. I awake early before the sun, make my coffee and fry and egg. Then climb my way to a cockpit seat. I eat, then drink my hot brew. I have sails set and tiller tied. My vessel makes her way to some distant destination. I am going to a place that ends my sailing adventure. It's a destination! Sailing home will not be the same, I think with a tinge of sadness. It will only be returning and the magic of adventure will be a memory. I try once a summer to sail all alone, long miles into the sea. This in part for looking at the night sky. Most places on land such a spot cannot really be found. The sky is all awash in a glow of modern living, cities and headlights finds the milky way mostly obliterated. At sea I gaze at the millions of stars, the Milky Way and marvel that in the clear sea air the stars go all the way to the horizon. They disappear behind it first a whole then a half and finally gone. With a look behind me there is nothing, then a half a star and finally the whole of it rises to take its place among the others. This is a thing not to be seen on land as the stars are hidden by pollutants below 10 or15 degrees above the horizon. I lay flat on my back and study the night sky. It is amazing what you think about when you do. There are ponderous things I think about when I leave my world behind. I see the overwhelming vastness of the universe as man has seen it for hundreds of thousands of years before the advent electric lights and I feel a connection to them. I feel tiny and yet huge that I can view such a vast greatness and even speculate on what it means.. I wonder who I am, what is my place in this where did it all come from and where is it going. I know this all sounds an absurdity but for a touch of this, go out into the country away from cities and their night time glow and lay down flat on you back in the grass. Study the stars and the milky way and you will find a connection with all who are looking up and with every man that ever has. You will wonder of things no man, scientific, religious or fanciful can ever know. Until you do this you cannot know yourself or your place in this modern world. To look through a telescope reduces it all to a tiny spot and the immenseness of it is lost. If I were an astronomer I would lay in the grass and look up. In this way I might understand. Sailing is for me is a way to know my self and find that I can function in immense fear and at the same time enjoy a sense of peace. Without it, I believe I could get bogged down in all the fear and hatred that inhabits our modern world. The End |