On the water

Ships, boats and sailing on the water have been somewhat on my mind recently. This was sparked by singing the carol 'I saw three ships come sailing in...', and by news of a friend who was off to take a cruise. She told me how much she loves cruising. And then I glanced at a travel report that stated the one thing you don't get on a cruise is the sensation of being at sea!

I've been fortunate in my life to take short and long journeys across the oceans. My first experience was when, as a young teenager, I sailed from Cape Town to the U.K. This is a two-week trip I've done five times, and once I did the three week up the East coast of Africa from Durban to Venice, stopping at exotic destinations on the way. Smaller scale are so many crossings of the English channel on visits to and from the European Continent. Smaller still, sailing from Cape Town to Robben Island before it was the famous prison, around the Vancouver islands. Smallest of all sailings and boatings on lagoons, rivers and lakes.

So all this is a preamble to a deeper wondering (no pun intended): what really is the difference we experience while on the water? I don't think it's simply the fact that we're no longer standing on the earth with all its forces under our feet. There's something special about being free of the land that puts you (well, me at any rate) in a different soul space. Thinking about those cross-channel trips, I remember standing at the rail watching the sea drift past, breathing in the salty air and feeling enlarged and uplifted.

Yes, the boat carrying us over the water is a potent image, and one I'm happy to live with in these advent days.