As you can tell by my previous post I have a soft spot in my heart for the Chesapeake Bay. I used to live in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. That was about 150 miles from Edgewater, Maryland where my sailboat was berthed. Gas was a little cheaper then and I didn’t mind the long drive. I’m a bit of a road warrior anyway. I spent almost 20 years of daily driving as a medical laboratory courier.
As much as I loved being on the road I loved being afloat more. There is something satisfying about moving ahead on an essentially trackless expanse. I discovered much the same feeling when I earned a pilot’s license. Without the ribbon of asphalt beneath turning wheels a person is challenged by new decisions. An absence of solid ground to hold us firmly against the force of gravity demands a shift in our thinking.
The bay held me in it’s hands through sunny days on the windy crest of cold fronts that sometimes showed themselves as stern taskmasters. It provided me with safe harbors by the hundreds. It fed me from it’s bounty. It never failed to feel like home.
Life ashore has it’s definite advantages. but It was a necessary interlude where I gathered the resources that made visiting the bay possible. The wait was worth the payoff. I have had some interesting and scary times on the water but boredom has never been a problem. I don’t remember ever standing on the foredeck gazing up at the sky yearning to be back in my driveway.
Life as they say is what happens while we are busy making plans. I left Pennsylvania, my home and my boat, to “go west young man.” I have not seen the bay since September of 2002. However I now live on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula where the mountains come down to the sea and I don’t have to drive 3 hours to get to it.
I haven’t been on the water very much in the intervening years. I am settled into a new home with a new driveway. The view from my workshop window provides a visual slice of the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Thus we have the setting for much of my future blogging. I invite you to share a new journey with me. There are boats to be built, new waters to explore and Grandchildren who need to be taken from their televisions to join a pirate band. Look at the water. God ‘s powerful hand is making fine brushstrokes wherever you are.
