We had a steady breeze last night and took our new-to-us sailboat to nearby Claytor Lake so my husband could take me for a sail. He and the kids took the boat for our family’s maiden voyage while I was in Vienna, and I’ve been eagerly waiting for my chance to go since I returned … Continue reading My first sail
We’ve been wanting a boat our whole married lives, and in fact have had a few. My husband built wooden kayaks for us before we had kids. And we also had a fiberglass sailboat for a minute. Then we had children. Really we can’t blame them. The boats we had weren’t right for us. Like … Continue reading We bought a boat
This is a longform post in response to the Discover: Memory challenge. I spent my girlhood riding in the bow of a motorboat, through labyrinths of spartina grass, pulling wet hair from my eyes, licking salt from my lips, gathering sunlight on my freckled skin. My playgrounds were the brown rivers, the salt marshes, the barrier … Continue reading Tidal Playground
I looked up to the crow’s nest where lookouts would have perched. Lines dropped down to the ship’s deck, cutting the sky into triangles. I snapped photographs of all that geometry, those hard lines, that negative space, and daydreamed about sailing. As I photographed, each frame made me realize the expanses of my ignorance. I … Continue reading Rigging
Saturday in Baltimore: the sun shone bright, the sky gleamed blue, and I carried my real camera to the Inner Harbor where the historic wooden USS Constellation and the USS Torsk submarine are moored as museum ships. Rope pulls me with its usefulness: twisted for strength and elasticity, fibrous for friction to hold itself tight. … Continue reading Rope
When a crew member in Kauai jumped off the stern to sink an anchor, it brought back memories. I’ve been anchored on land too long. I miss being on the water, in the water, under water. I had forgotten about the ocean after been so far from it for so long. But being in Hawaii … Continue reading Anchor
Butterfly Mind 