Being Out There.

     The light has just begun to fill the sky.  New colors penitrate the darkness that had hung in the sky for the last few hours.  The tiny white lights made by stars in distant universes are fading and disappearing with these new found colors.  Crickets are still chirping from hidden places on the shoreline.    Nearby a blue heron is standing in ankle deep water staring intently into the blankness of the deep water around it.  An osprey begins to open its wings and start a new day by fishing to feed its brood in the nest located ontop of a red navigation marker. Barn swallows dart in and out of the pile ons of a nearby dock.    The sun finally creeps up over the horizon revealing a light fog that is hanging over the water.  Tiny ripples caused by the light South West breeze are reflecting the light and the air begins to slowly warm.  The smell of salt water permiates the air and dew coats the decks of the boat.    Finally the sun comes all the way up over the Chesapeake Bay Marsh on the other side of this remote anchorage.  The once still air now bustles with the sound of seagulls looking for food and fish breaking the surface of the water.  A waterman works a string of pots off in the distance, looking hopefully at each pot as he tries to work his way through life.     This is just part of what it is like to be out there.  The things that we always see but rarely notice become burned into our memories as if we have seen them again for the first time.  Getting to the next port is the goal but the journey to get there is just as important.  The wind in the sails, the hissing sound that the boat makes as it effortlessly slides through the water and slices through the waves.    Cruising on the Chesapeake Bay is not a hobby, it is life.  Those of us who are fortunate enough to do this and understand the true meaning of being a cruising sailor understand what I mean by this.  To us sailing is like breathing, it is part of our freedom.    To truely understand cruising sailors, you have to meet them in their element.  There is nothing like dingying around the anchorages and meeting people from distant places.  People who you have never met before but you know like life long friends.  People who won't hesitate to help you if you are having problems, ready to lend a hand, or even a spare part if it means helping out a fellow cruiser.      True, there are rough times when you are cruising.  All of us have weathered our storms, sometimes in the harbor and sometimes at sea.  During those times we learn of our inner strengths and fortitude.  We reassure ourselves that we will make it through, the sun will rise on the next morning, and the winds will calm back down.  They always do.  Such is true for life.    I can truely say that I have been blessed to have been able to live this life, to be out there.  When I am not out there I dream of it, the distance places that I have been, the distant places that I will go.  To truely know what it means, you have to have been out there.  My soul has been woven into the fabric of the sea, and without it in my life things would just break down.     When ever I have weathered a personal storm in my life I look ahead and know that I will be out there again.  I will be out there cruising on a breeze, watching the cares of that life leave and be replaced with the promises of the journey, being alive, being out there.