We reside on a globe spinning in space. Photographs brought back from our voyages outward tell us that, in the way we view Mars as the red planet, we are the blue plantet. The blue is our water, trimmed by a spotty cape of white clouds riding in the thin peel of our atmosphere. Air and ocean, wind and water, two opposing elements constantly annoyed with one another.
What we think of as the sea is the place where those two angry elements meet. The wind runs along the water and furrows it, whips up waves and foam, throws it onto the beach and against the rocks. The water leaps into the wind as spray and creeps into it as fog. They are seldom peaceful neighbors. The only sign of peace between them is the sail-craft, a creature of both worlds, at accord with both, using both, making a kind of bond between them, and in that bond is great power. By the wind, with the water, the sailboat somehow plugs into the basic power supply of the universe. |