Sunday, September 16, 2007

the ocean


I'm in a warm, dry coffeeshop in fremont, and all I can think about is what's going on off of cape flattery. Cape Flattery is the northwestern-most point in washington state, and is a literal turning point from sailing westward out of the straights of Juan de Fuca, to sailing southbound in the Pacific Ocean. It is also a figurative turning point in many ways for me. Its there that the voyage actually begins in my mind. It will most probably be a downhill run in the prevailing northwesterly wind, and so at that point, a sailing vessel is farily committed. Once that left hand corner is turned, to turn back would be..... harder. Its that left turn that I've been thinking about for so many years now. I passed those swell soaked rocks many times this spring and looked at them intently through binoculars from the stable deck of my containership and imagined that left turn, toward the warm south seas, away from the familar, entrapping Puget Sound. I fully expect the moment to be anticlimactic in reality, but its still going to be a very real point of departure.

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