Re: [Paddlewise] Trip Report: Surfing the Harvest Moon

Hurray for John!  As a former English major now condemned to boring
legal brief writing, I always appreciate beautiful writing.  And of
course, beautiful moonlit paddling as well!  As a former beach life
guard, I used to enjoyed swimming out in the Atlantic, far off shore, at
midnight. Such a peaceful, tranquil feeling!  And yet, one feels the
enormity of nature!  (Just try to forget that sharks feed at night!).

  And I thought I was the only one who noticed that past the breakers,
the waves really are gentles hills that we peacefully traverse over.

  Now if I could just get my alabaster skinned/ lightly freckled beauty
to kayak!

  So own up to it John, are you a writer?  Even if you aren't, write
here more often about kayaks and the sea!  By the way, where are you
located?  I'm traveling down to Florida this winter and would enjoy
doing some paddling there!

  - Scott

John Somers wrote:
> 
> >To: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net
> >From: John Somers <somers_at_utmbrt.utmb.edu>
> >Subject: Surfing the Harvest Moon
> >
> >Twilight on the Gulf, we take our short kayaks to the beach.
> >We're on the water, nose through the breakers and beyond before moonrise.
> >
> >We paddle east, past the palms with, what? Christmas lights?  Yes, looks
> like the big hotel is lighting up its front driveway with palmlites.  Up
> the beach, past neon and argon, mercury and whatever other lamps attempt to
> light up the coastal darkness.  They all fade from view as we move further
> out.
> >Now there's a small, deep-red spot of light appearing above the horizon to
> the southeast.  A far richer glow than any of the seawall lights, the
> rising harvest moon makes its way through and behind the spidering clouds,
> always glowing, simmering through, large and red.
> >It emerges, half a sphere, awesomely beautiful.  No wonder the Karankawas
> wept with the setting of the sun and danced to greet its rising.  They were
> directly connected.  Did they also dance to see the full moon rise?
> >
> >Flocks of black skimmers appear, veering to and fro, surfing the light
> waves from that moon.  One group heads straight toward my boat, veers
> upward to clear the swinging arc of my blade, then back down close to the
> water, still cutting back and forth.  They fly by celestial light, immune
> to the bonds of thinking, conceptualizing, knowledge, just being.
> >
> >Somewhere far to the east are the Keys.  The water rolls in hills and
> valleys, connecting us with there and beyond, with the Atlantic, with other
> seas, and, through vast evapo/condensing cycles of nature, with the rain,
> fog and snowcaps that feed streams everywhere to rivers, to seas and back
> again.  With the Tsangpo and its recent victim, with the floods of Central
> America and of central Texas, and even, most definitely, with the past and
> the future.
> >It's quiet out here, and the water connects us all, highlighted by the
> moonlight glancing off each ripple and swell.
> >
> >The moon rises higher, fully spherical, still deep orange and large.  Now
> the perfect circle in the sky, not mathematically, but visibly, and casts
> its golden trail across the water.  If this is not real, then nothing is.
> >
> >As it turns from orange to gold, we spin on the water and begin to make
> our way back, tacking across the swells, surfing and tacking, sometimes
> turning back to see the moonlight paling to yellow and illuminating more
> and more of the sea.
> >We surf the water and the light; I recognize again that I am seeking, not
> yet enlightened, only partially illuminated.
> >
> >Stick a couple of rolls, make our way back in through the surf, then low
> brace the last easy ones into the beach.
> >
> >Says the fair-haired lady with the alabaster skin, hazel eyes gleaming,
> >       "Gulf coast days may be steamy, but ohhh....these Somers nights!"
> 
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-- 
MZ
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