Green Sea

Green Sea--Milton Avery, 1958

OK, I admit it--it's April & I'm already in sailing mode.  Big weekend coming up with NOOD--for those out there (few to be sure but who don't know: NOOD is not nude sailing(although I know a few who do)--it stands for: National Off-shore One-design Regatta). Annapolis ain't off-shore but the regatta sort of marks the opening of the racing season--Wednesday night series notwithstanding.  There are 3 main regattas--last weekend in April--NOOD, Screwpile in mid-July, & Annapolis Race Week during Labor Day weekend.  Of course throw in the North Americans, or mid-Atlantics, or Miles, or, or...but these stick out.  Last year didn't get to do NOOD, nor the year before.  This year is different--

But I'm not writing only about sailing (although it is hard not to), I'm writing about how this time of year always makes me so happy--not just because the weather is better, or school's almost out...it has everything to do with my hobby & the fact that I share it with Xing Fu--this time of year brings us back to center--I think we are both happier.  It is like coming home.  My late grandfather (George Fisher) whose birthday was April 18th, would understand. I've spoken about him in the past--sailor extraordinaire--self-taught & unapologetically obsessed. I think he'd approve--and I know he'd be so happy to know that his granddaughter is about as sailing-obsessed as he was. Dare I say it?  More so....

But it also has to do with water--the beach, waves--all of it--coming home.  Mebbe it has to do with being a water sign--Cancer, but I always reach a sense of inner-calm when I'm on, near, or in water.  Been reading a book recently entitled The Summer of Skinny Dipping by Amanda Howells & the main character seems to have similar feelings about being near water be it ocean or bay. Howells writes beautifully about the ocean; about water--she captures the imagery beautifully.  (Even if this is a teen book--I admit it--I'm enjoying the revisit to awkwardness just a little bit.)

"And with the wide gray skies and the metallic water all around me, I felt myself disappearing into the immediate present, into the wind and the bay, the flapping of the sails, and the voices of my uncle and my father.  ....breathe deeply, and unwind like the sails unfurling from the masthead."

Tomorrow I'm back out there....