The Secrets of The Ocean
May. 20th, 2006 04:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenstormSo I'm a boater. I'm something of an indifferent boater sometimes, and a bit lazy about it, but as trite as it sounds there's something about it that got into my blood in my couple of years of living on the water. I do own a boat (my little row boat) and I neglect her shamefuly. I am building a kayak for myself with Juggler. I hold a Pleasure Craft Operator's Card, which means I'm allowed to be on the water in a smalish (less than sixty feet) boat with a motor.
Since Juggler and I are building kayaks, we decided it would be a good idea to go out in them. We signed up for lessons today, on a cloudy Saturday morning in Deep Cove.
Deep Cove is a little surreal. It is pure distilled North Van-- Honey's Doughnuts, which is a little shop with chalkboard menus and big oat-bran-and-fancy-fruit muffins and stuff, was open when we got there. The whole area, little shops and streets winding down to the water, was full of runners and kayakers to the exclusion of anywhere else. It's the soul of Vancouver outdoor culture.
Being in a kayak, on the other hand, is boating. You'd think there would be a difference, and a big one, between a 42' motor yacht, an 8' rowboat, an 8' inflatable, and a 10' spun plastic shell that snaps up around your waist with a neoprene hood. In fact, there is not.
They're all just ways of interacting with the ocean, and the ocean is the same. I love kayaking. It's sexy. You ride the waves with your hips and fly like twirling batons, it's definitely one serious interaction with the big wet mama out there. It's not more of an interaction, though, than sailing through the tips of the waves in a small craft warning in a Zodiac, whapwhapwhapbouncebouncebounce, or passing through her in a light, slicing rocking pass driven by twin diesels. The ocean is so big that the size of your boat doesn't matter at all, although th details of finessing her are different.
And you know? The ocean is so good. My soul is satisfied. I love this.
Since Juggler and I are building kayaks, we decided it would be a good idea to go out in them. We signed up for lessons today, on a cloudy Saturday morning in Deep Cove.
Deep Cove is a little surreal. It is pure distilled North Van-- Honey's Doughnuts, which is a little shop with chalkboard menus and big oat-bran-and-fancy-fruit muffins and stuff, was open when we got there. The whole area, little shops and streets winding down to the water, was full of runners and kayakers to the exclusion of anywhere else. It's the soul of Vancouver outdoor culture.
Being in a kayak, on the other hand, is boating. You'd think there would be a difference, and a big one, between a 42' motor yacht, an 8' rowboat, an 8' inflatable, and a 10' spun plastic shell that snaps up around your waist with a neoprene hood. In fact, there is not.
They're all just ways of interacting with the ocean, and the ocean is the same. I love kayaking. It's sexy. You ride the waves with your hips and fly like twirling batons, it's definitely one serious interaction with the big wet mama out there. It's not more of an interaction, though, than sailing through the tips of the waves in a small craft warning in a Zodiac, whapwhapwhapbouncebouncebounce, or passing through her in a light, slicing rocking pass driven by twin diesels. The ocean is so big that the size of your boat doesn't matter at all, although th details of finessing her are different.
And you know? The ocean is so good. My soul is satisfied. I love this.
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Date: 2006-05-21 12:30 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-05-21 07:51 am (UTC)I really like this line.
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Date: 2006-05-21 01:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-22 12:23 am (UTC)To many memories of being out on the ocean coming back lately, finding she has been calling me back all the time.