The greater light that rises and sets

   We had anchored the boat near the entrance to the Atlantic Ocean via Long Island sound. That is what one does when one is taking the boat from the harbor in Westchester to it winter home in the docks in Connecticut. Sometime, overnight on the sail boat could be entertaining. Especially if it was the final voyage of the season.  I had slept rather well with the water rocking me to sleep and the soft lapping of the small waves against the boat’s hull. I knew it was almost time for sunrise because of the gentle change in the night sky as it began to fade from indigo to a smokey darkish blue. I got up and climbed though the sail hatch which put me about 4 feet from the boat’s front railing. I gripped a hold and sat down with me feet and legs dangling over the edge. I heard a few gulls cawing and could see a couple of fish near the boat. Then there it was.

  There was that amazing first peek of light showing on the horizon. That sparkle on the horizon were the cracking open of the darkness of the old day leaving and the new one’s beginning occurs. The moon or lesser light, was still up above in the deep blue velvet. The stars were being lost from sight, vanishing as if a great wind were blowing them out one by one. The greater light, the Sun, a symbol known to worshipers of vast number of deities. To some a form of light boat used by those who are and were of light, to travel the heavens. To others just an annoyance that wakes them up or lets them know what time it is. It was sunrise the dawning of a new day.

 Words could never do justice to the palette of colors of a sunrise presents to the viewer’s eye. In a period of approximately 2 minutes, one’s vision is surrounded and engulfed in a glorious display of colors. Pink, orange, yellow, white, blues swirling and changing as the light kiss them good day. And right in the middle of it all there I am feeling the breeze, being rocked by the water and just for that brief time I am at peace. Then the sounds of the rest of the crew start to echo in my ears as the day begins.

 “Light’s up and on mates, time for breakfast and the last leg of the journey.”

  The boat was a Columbia 28 Sailboat. It was duped the argonaut by its captain, with full agreement of the crew and first mate. It was the first boat our family owned. The captain, my dad, was a retired Navel officer. He had been taking us to boat shows at The New York Coliseum which was a convention center that stood at Columbus Circle in Manhattan, New York City, for a few years. Then one day shortly after having been to one of these shows we were eating family dinner and were notified by dad, sitting down with his navel cap on, that we now owned a boat and that it needed a name. “God forbid” was all I could mutter when my two brothers said the Kathy or the Gloria. My mother Gloria just laughed and said, “oh no it must be the Argonaut!” All agreed and we were notified we would be going aboard and learning how to sail. The next day both of my brothers began sailing class at the youth fellowships boat house.

  The most important lesson of boating is knowing all you can about the harbor that will be the boats home. It’s size, how many boat slips. How many boat moorings, and were the harbor stopped and the yacht club began. Next the fastest route from your home to the harbor by foot and by bicycle. Them with those lesson under ones belt you will be able to understand that when you a family that owns a sail boat, at least in our community, your whole friggin world is going to change. You will also if you were a member of our family, learn who was the captain, who was the first mate and who was the crew. Because once we left shore there was no more family. The were the Landes sailing in the Argonaut.

   Of course, sailing season is only for a brief time and it always come to end as fall approaches. The harbor closes. The boats have to be removed and stored and life’s little joy of spring and summer ends. So here we are on the season last voyage. We pull up anchor, leave the safety of Long Islands water and head into the Atlantic for the finial nautical miles. The mails sail and jib are both up and the wind is at a solid 30 knots. We should arrive in Essex CT by night fall. The window had died down a little as we approach the water channels to the Connecticut river. The sky was beginning it darkening of twilight. The time of sunset was approaching. The captain ordered the anchor to be lowered and the sails also. “One last night aboard the Argonaut because next season we’re getting a larger boat!” Now that was a bit of a shock to hear but we made the boat ready for the night. The sky was ablaze in reds and pinks as the sun finished it day ruling the skies and that which was below it. There is an old saying “Red sky at night sailors delight red sky in the morning sailors warning.” I sat down with the captain and rest of the crew enjoying the easel of heaven. The clouds slow lost their color as the sun sank further and further down the horizon. The stars began to twinkle and we began calling out constellations. There is that brief hair breath of a second eight before the last sun beam shines were you want to just stay in the beauty that surrounds you as the sun tells the world goodnight.