It\'s A Sailor\'s Life Of Me

I have live my whole life around boats.  I have been sailing boats by myself since I was 12 and I was sailing with other people long before then.  I know that I have over 20 years before the mast. What is it about the sea that keeps drawing me back?  The sea, herself, can be a cruel mistress.  Many hopes and dreams are still lying at the bottom of the sea.  Many people have lost their lives at sea. The sea is also a mysterious place.  Legends tell of all manners of ghost ships and other paranormal things.  The Vikings believed that evil spirts lurked in the Mist (Fog) and that is why they put the faces on the front of their longboats.  There are many stories of ships and sailors who have been lost at sea and they vanish with no trace. When making a passage there is nothing that you can take for granted.  You never know how long it will take, only how long it should take.  You never even know if you are going to make your destination.  Sometimes the weather causes you to alter course and sometime you are forced to seek another destination because of problems with your boat. The fact is that sea going life is life at its most basic form.  If something breaks, you fix it.  The people that you meet along the way can be counted on because they know that you may be the one helping them one day.  If the course you are heading on is not working out, you alter it.  If you expect stormy seas you can either stay in port or you can belay the hatches and reduce sail area to punch through it.   Why can't life be the same way.  Things break all of the time and we just throw them out.  We are always looking for the next new thing.  If obstructions get in our way we often give up instead of belaying the  hatches and reducing the sail to beat through it.   Life is also mysterious.  There are evil spirits that lurk in the mist.  We have to know that they are there and prepare to deal with them.  Some people get lost along the way, during the journey.  We all have our ghost ships to deal with.