Sailing Sailing, South of the Coast of Maine

There's nothing a pirate likes better than the sea (other than a good wenching, of course). The sea and a buccaneer are kindred spirits.

I realised my true calling when my Grandmother invited me once on a 10-day cruise through the Carribean. There are some things about being at sea which are unlike any other experiences on earth:

• The deep azure water once you're far from the gray of large metropolitan ports.

• Insomnia's never a problem when you're rocked to sleep every night.

• The vast horizon in the evening, with its glowing pink puffs of cotton dotting the sky. Some of them flash with heat lightning as though there were little bulbs nestled within.

• The enigma of a clear, moonless night. The end of the sky could be ten feet or infinity. Past the immediate light of the ship and a small belt of murky black waves, you just can't tell. Occasionally you might eye a tiny string of lights halfway up your line of vision: another ship 10 or 50 miles off.

• The ship steers around stray rainclouds while trying to remain oncourse. Sometimes it just doesn't sufficiently clear one, and for three minutes it rains.

• Lying on deck with a walkman, the ebb and flow pace made me feel like a blood cell coursing through a higher being. I remember someone commenting through the music: "He looks like he's in absolute bliss..."

It is now fifteen years and another cruise later. It's time to get closer to the elements. So yours truly will be up in New England over Labour Day Weekend. There will be a schooner festival where I'm going. Saturday will have schooner racing and end in a fireworks display. Lobster runs and whalewatching in abundance, a night cruise on a restored period schooner in full moonlight. The final day will be spent in Salem at the New England Pirate Museum. Who could ask for anything more?

Now, I don't plan on being entirely wireless. There's the free library and I'll be forwarding my bloodmail to a web-based account during the trip. There's also a cybercafe in town for any of my Telnet needs. And I'll be checking daily to be sure my Horror Dreambook (see the previous two rants) remains in context (Will I be glad when THAT's over!).

I'll be back in time to jump into an acro tournament. If that won't halt the iminent withdrawal symptoms, I don't know what will! (Well actually the salty sea air'll take care of that on the first day - I just wanted to get melodramatic)