I Must Go To The Sea Again

I must go down to the seas again,
for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call
that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day
with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume,
and the sea-gulls crying.

From the poem, “ Sea Fever”, by John Masefield


A few years ago my wife and I chartered a 36 foot sailboat and went out for a week. We made it a point to eat one meal a day ashore and the rest on the boat. The only time we listened to the radio was to get the weather forecast first thing in the morning and the last thing during the evening. There was no television, and no newspapers.

It was a most enjoyable adventure. She learned how to navigate by shooting an azimuth and following a compass setting based on the sea charts. She also learned the thrill of handling the wheel in strong winds with waves breaking over the bow.

You should have seen the delight in her eyes and the grin on her face as the boat surged through the waves and the ocean spray sprinkled us with it’s salty mist.

Then, there was the time when we were coming into the long pier at Ship Island under sail. No one was around us and I had carefully planned our approach and eventual docking. Then, out of no where, a 19’ motor boat zoomed past us, cut perpendicular in front of us and tied up to the pier exactly where we were headed.

I yelled to them to move because I was under sail and didn’t have time to start the engine to slow down. They tried but couldn’t get their boat to start and I was beaming down on them like an ocean liner running across a life raft.

I quickly grabbed the forward line and made a big bowline in it. I handed it to my wife and told her I was about to nudge the side of the boat against the pier and she was to take the line, jump off and throw it around one of the pilings as we went by it.

She did and we stopped about two feet from a bunch of terrified drunks in a powerless powerboat. It scared the crap out of all of us. I tied off the stern and we decided to catch our breath and have a drink before going ashore.

Later that day, we anchored off of an island just at sunset. We had already eaten supper and decided to sit in the cockpit with a Bloody Mary and enjoy the sights and sounds. The sun was beautiful, the waves were peaceful and the world was at ease. We looked at each other and decided we didn’t care what else was going on in the world. For the moment, ours was perfect. We could learn about the worrisome things later, much later.

As darkness crept upon us and the moon came out, we decided to go below and let the gentle motion of the sea rock us to sleep. It was the end of a wonderful day. There were no terrible fears, no sad events, and no world issues to bother us. We looked forward to a beautiful sunrise in the morning beckoning the beginning of another idyllic day at sea.