Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Are you scared of being in open water?

I get weekends off with this challenge, I think, and with the holiday being on a Monday, I took Sunday and Monday as my weekend. Back at it today.

I am not neccesarily scared of being in open water. I spent a great amount of time as a kid on Lake Wylie in my dad's boat, anchoring in coves, swimming, eating Penrose hot sausages, watching my Dad pee off the end of the boat, etc. We did a little skiing, but not alot- mostly wandering around until weather or sunset pushed us back home. Even though it's a large lake, you could always see the shore for the most part, so I'm not sure it qualifies as "open water". I have also spent time at the beach, and been on one whole cruise in my lifetime. Being out in the Atlantic looking in every direction unable to see any land- that was truly open water. It was also December, and even though we were near Bahamas et al, it wasn't a time to spend a lot of time contemplating the open ocean. I did go up front one time to see if there were any dolphin, or whales near by, or flying fish as were rumored. Saw none of those, but did get an appreciation for the vastness of the ocean. Not just the breadth of it- water as far as you see in every direction- but also for the depth of it- realizing that you are in waters 300, 500, 3000, or 5000 feet deep. Not having a depth finder handy, I'm just guessing on those depths- but I do know it was way over my head. So, you become quite aware of how sturdy a boat you're on. I thought of how flat it seemed from our height and given the fact it was clear and calm. I could only imagine rolling over the billows as a hurricane swirled to our south, or a storm came sweeping through. The images from "The Poseidon Adventure," "The Perfect Storm," or "Titanic" provide ample imagery for me- I have no desire to experience that for myself- heck, the storm that shipwrecked Gilligan et al seemed pretty wicked to me.
So, in short, as far as I know I am not overly scared of open water, but I might change my mind if the tide changes.

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