[Rhodes22-list] Offshore sailing revisited

[Mark Kaynor]

Rik,

I just read this. I like it a lot. Especially the bit about believing life
can be saved up. Thanks.

Mark Kaynor

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rik Sandberg" <racerrik@rea-alp.com>
To: <rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2002 12:57 AM
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Offshore sailing revisited


> All,
>
> Came across a quote tonight as I was reading the G.O.B. bi-monthly
> newsletter. Reminded me of the conversations we had a bit ago about
sailing
> to the Bahamas in an R 22 and the risks involved. Can't say I have learned
> this "from the sea" yet, but I believe I have had similar feelings about
> some other "fairly risky" endeavors I have taken on in my life so far. At
> any rate, thought you all might be interested, this struck a chord with
> me........enjoy, Rik
>
> ___________________________________________________________________
> "When I started sailing, I thought I only had to learn about my boat, so
it
> would take me safely across the sea. But as I sailed, I realized I had to
> know the sea herself. My boat was a walnut shell in the hand of the sea,
> and I was even less.
>
> I learned to love the sea -- but no, that doesn't say it. Before I sailed
I
> thought I was afraid of death. Then I learned something, somewhere among
> the islands -- I had actually been afraid of injustice, of being cheated
> out of life, say, by someone who couldn't point his car very well.
>
> On the sea I kept my boat in order and wore my safety harness -- so if I
> was swept away, it was the sea, the sea did it. As a result, as the days
> went by and I faced the risks of sailing, I cared less about death. I only
> had to avoid outright stupidity -- if the sea took me in spite of that, I
> was hers.
>
> Then, one day as I watched the waves, I realized I had surrendered to the
> sea -- in exchange for my knowing her, she could take me if she wished. I
> could have stayed on shore, but that would have been merely waiting for
> death. I had to sail.
>
> Before that day, I believed I could outwit nature, plea-bargain my way out
> of mortality. But I knew there was something I wasn't getting -- I could
> see it in the eyes of animals. When I looked into their eyes I realized
> they knew about death, but they didn't believe they could give it
> directions. I saw a resignation and a fondness for experience that I
> thought proved how stupid they were.
>
> I no longer believe I can save life up -- it has to be spent to have any
> value. And that in order to live, to have adventure, you have to be
willing
> to die. The sea taught me this, and turned me inside out -- among her
> swells and islands I became an animal, an inhabitant of nature. You can
see
> it in my eyes."
> -- Sterling Hayden
>
> _________________________________________________
> Use Rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org, Help? www.rhodes22.org/list