Sunday, January 22, 2012

Mood Camera - INOP

For those of you who have the fortune of being blissfully unaware of aviation jargon, there is a thing called a squawk list, a list of items on an aircraft that, after routine inspection or a flight, are found needing repair or replacement which are given a designation such as Mood Camera - INOP.  When I got up this morning to pay dues on my really excellent Moscato from last night, I poked my head out the companionway to find an incredibly beautiful scene - fog, mist, gulls circling around the marina in a cloud...There was a mood there, a realization that the gulls and the fog and the mist all belonged there, that they were doing what they had done for millennia, and that amazingly I had the privilege of being there at that particular moment.  I grabbed the camera and tried to get a video, but the mood was immediately lost, as if indignant that I had tried to capture it and somehow strip its authenticity.  I had one of those epiphany moments though, the complete and total understanding of cruisers who, when asked what one thing they would tell prospective cruisers, all say, "Go Now!" because, while you can read all the blogs in the world, and watch all the sailing videos on YouTube, and talk to all the sailors you run across, unless you're there in the middle of the fog and mist and clouds of gulls you're just going to miss the experience.

2 comments:

SailFarLiveFree said...

Well said! It's amazing how cruisers can find inspiration in things (seagulls) that most of us take for granted or consider a nuisance. Keep up the good writing!

Unknown said...

I know what you mean. I have geese all around my boat .. i would've thought they would be farther south but i guess they like lake Michigan in the winter .. i do

Sea Drifter