Oct 30, 2011

Sail.

When I was young, I did every kind of sport. Volleyball, basketball, horse back ridding, i took dance classes, surf, bodyboard, among others.
I loved doing sports, and I used to dream of one day become a professional in something. But that never came true. Actually, I now think that that maybe a non pursuitable dream of these passing days...
To garantee a future you need to have a degree in something. TO have a degree in something, you have to go to school and be good at it. So that was my choice, hang on to school and see where it will guide me.
Of all of those sports I used to practice, there is only one I really regret not taking it seriously, and that would be Sailing.
First lesson in Olhão, on the waters of Ria Formosa the new discovered habitat of the biggest seahorse community. I was 5 or 6 years when my dad drove me and my sister to the Nautical club in Olhão. I remember walking trough those halls of the warehouses where they kept all the boats safe and sound. I even remember the big portrait on one wall will all the knots a sailor should be able to do. I remember little details on some boats I had passed by.
Since I was 5 or 6, and that was my first class, I wasn't able to sail all by myself. So we, the smallest pupils, went with the coach in a zebro. We sailed beside all the other students. I remember him saying to them to turn around and watch their heads for the pole, and things like that.
I had always felt a really strong connection with water. May the water be the sea or a lake. May I be on a boat  or taking deep dives in to it.
On those classes, spite my great attention to the coach, I remember leaning off the zebro to touch the water in movement. It seemed like it was the was that kept us going cutting through the wind, and not the Yamaha motor. And when I finally touched a single drip of water, I felt that connection growing stronger.

Today, water still is a major background on my dreams. One of the most amazing landscapes I had ever seen was the coral reef in Mozambique. All the fishes, starfishes and barracudas!

If I could get away now anywhere and anyhow...



... I would sail around all the oceans and be free.

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