I’m in the Atlanta airport again. I feel like I’ve spent a lot of time passing through here lately. This time I’m on my way home from a vacation with my girlfriends in Jamaica. 

Between being on the Caribbean, reading my sailing primer, and knowing we have a boat at home, I feel the tug of open water. It is strong. I love our home in the Appalachians, but I miss large bodies of water: the sound of waves splashing, the hollow slap of liquid on a boat hull. 

Luckily, we do have water nearby, and a vessel that will get us out on it.

My book helped me with the language of sailing, and now that I better understand the physics of sailing, I’m super excited to see it in action, and to work with wind, pressure differentials, and the sailing equivalent of lift.

Right now, sailing is just words and illustrations in a book for me, though. I can’t wait to get my hands on the rigging and the boat in the breeze so I can learn what it feels like in real life, manipulating the sails and our placement in the wind, and so I can practice coming about and jibing.

I’ve got a lot to learn. Enough for a lifetime, really. I wish we had a dock (and a body of water) in our back yard. 

For now I’ll look forward to our family vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. One week with the Atlantic Ocean on one side of us and a protected sound on the other. Our sailboat is coming with us, and I plan to begin my training as a sailor.

First, though, I need to get home.