Awake to the dawn

Amid the world, there is but one place that each of us holds. Among the masses we are but one, individually wrapped soul bouncing off the others. What of this wrapping? I look through the wasteful packaging walking down the isles of the local grocery store, is the body such to the Divine as they shop the cosmic shop for a planet to create? Silly thought. But I do revel in this packaging, and I do see it as such for a time like today clearly shows the contents within are not the same as the image of the container.

To the wearer of make-up: Wake Up, shine the inner beauty and find the complementary container your seek with your contents. The put on make-up if you so desire to express the soul. And to myself and those like me: Let the confidence catch up, stick with something; any of the beautiful things/ideas you've been ahead of for so long.

(concludes the fortune cookie portion of this post)

I"ve put my boat, the Nita Jacqueline, on "the hard" as they say. She sits floating in the air, sturdy still resting upon her keel and stands. So concludes my inaugural year of being a sailor, and to my credit (toot-toot), I didn't sink or suffer any serious damage due to negligence.

I did more than just jump off the deep end, a practice I've been working on for a few years now, but I pioneered, or, cleared the over-growth from an old path rather.

The arts of the sailor are many, and the skills I've collected as a carpenter, mechanic, climber, rigger and even artist have all helped to provide me with a good head start. I chose to get rid of my motor in favor of continuing a morally sound baseline lifestyle. There is no way around it, purchasing and burning gas for "fun" is bullshit (whom ever find offence, talk to your conscience, I speak the truth the truth). This presents a few challenges, especially to the novice seaman, namely docking/navigating in tight spots in calms -or- high winds.

At the dock, rarely will you see a sailboat softly sailing into or out of her slip, or being boat-hooked to a point where sails can be hoisted. There is no reason to motor a sailboat except that all-American condition of "Aversion to Discomfort". I am proof that, it is not a difficult thing to dock and shuv-off under sail, or skull with the rudder for I am a novice and have been doing motor less sailing for 6 months.

I was a little (a lot) nervous at first, well, for a while actually. But each time I mad good decisions in the beginning and despite my perception I always ended up with a nice smooth approach and docking. There were times I was frantic, bystanders must of been confused; to see a sailboat gracefully and without a sound drift up to the dock, with her captain running about with dock lines and fenders falling about. I still remember the motor, how on two occasions: I one fell in the water trying to stop her at the slip, and two, stalled the motor before I could put it in revers to slow the boat at the dock, having no choice but to jump ashore and cleat her, slamming her bow into the dock.

Under way, she was kind to me, and sailed as the wind itself. She is a fine boat and a finer home still. I spend this winter on projects to return her to a fully worthy bluewater boat. And I look to the southern waters of a new experience and the continuation of my living adventure.