“Meditation and water are wedded forever,” wrote Melville.
I’m heading out to sea very soon in my pea-sized sailboat. It’s been a while since I’ve been at sea — last time was summer 2018, returning solo from Hanalei Bay to San Francisco — and after a while you start to get apprehensive about the idea of sailing alone across the Pacific. That apprehension brings all kinds of scary thoughts and worries. But that all goes away as soon as you leave the land.
The sea is a good place to go to think deeply. Several weeks alone on the sea in a small boat provides lots of time and space to do that. After a few days at sea you get into a groove. You quickly lose track of the days going by. You might wonder what’s going on back on land, but you don’t wonder for long, for the wonder of constant movement, water action, eternally changing sky, moon and stars, hold you in the present.
It’s not for everybody, but it suits me.