sailing, sailing home

so i didn't go sailing today, and I didn't go rowing, but I did have some fun on the water again. I do miss the water in Annapolis. Driving a pontoon boat on a lake in North Carolina is nothing like the challenge to send your own sculling boat across the choppy Severn by sheer muscle strength and adrenaline, or nothing like the pressure of navigating a sailboat through the changing tides and winds, getting over 45 degrees in keel as you lean your torso off the side to balance and steady the boat as you try to maintain the fastest point... but zipping across the water in a big, bulky boat is not too bad as a second runner up. You get the spray of the water in your face, you can watch the water fly up in semi circles beside the boat and glimpse a rainbow that seems just out of grasp a foot under the surface from the way the spray catches the sunlight. Or you can lay on a raft and use your arms like oars and paddle around at eye level to the water. In other words, you can experience fun and relaxation on the water... water sports for the not-so-rich-and-famous, lazier middle class Americans that we are.
I do miss the challenge of being a skillful rower and sailor, to go faster, drive harder, and the sweat that slides down your face as a validation of a good workout. But ending the summer on a lake in a more relaxed setting is nice too. Somehow, sailing on a lake doesn't appeal to me. I know it is virtually the same thing as sailing on a river or on a bay, but just knowing that you can't go anywhere, you literally are confined on all sides by the boundaries of land, makes sailing less thrilling. Even if I never went further than city dock in Annapolis sailing, just knowing that the river emptied into this enormous bay, with so much possibility to explore and find and encounter, and not being hedged in by huge lake-side houses for the on-the-fringe-of-the-rich-and-famous folk... makes sailing at least feel more freeing and adventuresome. On a lake, I feel like sailing is simply for those who just have a lot of money to throw around and buy a boat. It's not like they are ever going anywhere. Or that they'll ever be skillful sailors. I'm sure there's some, but mostly it feels more empty. At least with a pontoon boat, which may give you the impression from the exterior of being some jungle-safari boat, you know it's all about the horsepower and speed, zipping across the waves and racing other boats (as if you could really do that in a pontoon boat)... no illusion here of being a wealthier-than-thou, better-than-thou waterman because of a souped up sailboat. Pfsh. On the lake, it's speed and nothing else. I'm pretty much convinced.

yay for holidays that make for long weekends.