Saturday 3 April 2010

The Freedom of the Sea

This is one of my favourite quotes from one of my favourite poets; Emily Dickinson:

Exultation is the going
Of an inland soul to sea,
Past the houses - past the headlands -
Into deep Eternity -

Bred as we, among the mountains,
Can the sailor understand
The divine intoxication
Of the first league out from land?

Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

It sums up the freedom of being on the water and the thrill I still get every time we set sail.

These pictures were taken on a trip from Tollesbury to Ostend last year.

3 comments:

  1. Very true, Fran. And a lovely poem indeed. Your photo here is beautiful. I love the water, but am a bad sailor, so the sea is not for me, but the peace of a canal at sunset in rural Holland, Belgium or France..well, there's nothing to beat that for me.

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  2. Vally, we have been over to Holland on the yacht several times and had some great times. But I am not so fond of the longer trips these days, it takes about 24 hours to get to Holland. We are so busy with the barge that I very much doubt we will get much sailing in this summer. You do get a certain kind of peace on the water that is unique and that's one reason why we want to live on the water.

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  3. Hi Fran, I see you popped up on my blog (most likely via VallyP or perhaps Janys?) I see you are going great guns with your Bonnie. I read your introduction - 8mm minimum! that's a dream! Our barge is 120 years old and was originally a sailing ship - her hull is between 3.6 and 6 mm so we have a few dodgy bits. We hope to convert her all the way back to sail, but for now she isn't even our home, so quite a bit to do still.
    Good luck with all your plans, cheerio for now.

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