[Paddlewise] Tall Ships-why do they touch us od?

In a message dated 7/24/00 8:13:11 PM, uhoeger_at_is.dal.ca writes:

<< After the last one left I took a final look 
out to the horizon and got a impression how it might had been a 
150-200 years ago with all this sails heading east..
Then the chaos broke out.  All the pleasure boaters started moving 
their jet skies, power boats , sail boats, kayaks and canoes at the 
same time.  >>
How is it that we will risk life and limb to be close to them? Why will we 
endure traffic jams, no bathrooms, and thousands of others, to catch a 
glimpse of them?  I was one who got up at an ungodly hour, drove forever and 
then gawked with my head on my back deck as I looked up at the masts of the 
tall ships in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore. 
    I would do it again in a second and I still don't understand what it is 
that is so compelling. I love sail boats. I yield right of way to them out of 
affection, not just practicality. I can sit for hours watching them in their 
ballet as the 18', 24', 36' foot boats jockey in their races on the West 
river. 
    I just have to keep an eye out for the power boats that throw their wake 
or might even dump me as I watch the sail boats. I have found a safe, shallow 
place by a weir. If thewIf they run me down, they will at least trap 
themselves in the shallow of the spoil where I park to watch. It kind of 
tickles me to know my attention to the sailboats will be vindicated 
whdastardlysterdly deed of running me down will be laid at the feet of the 
driver of the boat mired in the soil! I'll take that chance to watch those 
lovely ships in their ballet.



Joan Spinner
   * * *
Paddling on the Chesapeake Bay 
watershed-a red, CD Breeze and 
a yellow/white CD Gulfstream
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