<center><h1>We've always been drawn to the sea.</h1></center>

On an island, you can't really help it — you're surrounded on all sides by a great wall of salt water as far as the eyes can see. The mysterious black Atlantic to the East, the calm warm Caribbean to the West. There's just something about it, isn't there? She is a cruel mistress, terrible in her anger, yet tender and loving at other times. She brings forth food from her bounties, if you have the skills to catch it! Men have gone to sea for all of recorded history, out into the unknown and the darkness and the wind. 

<center><h2>"Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after."</h2> - Henry David Thoreau</center>


<center>https://s16.postimg.org/bf5k39wzp/worthing2.jpg</center>
<center><sup>Worthing, 1962</sup></center>


My grandfather was a fisherman, and so were all his brothers. Not commercially per se, but as a boy he would wander the South Coast with friends fishing from the shore. There wasn't any TV to watch back then, no Snapchat and Facebook. The great powers were waging war and supplies of goods were short on a tiny little rock sitting snug on the boundary of the Caribbean and the Atlantic.  The grownups had better things to do than watch some kids all day. No helicopter parenting going on.

So out they went, exploring the world on their own. Along the South Coast from Worthing to Rockley and beyond catching  cavalli and jacks and whatever else.

He taught my father to fish, in their short time together. I never knew him. My grandfather hanged himself in their family home when my father was a teenager. I'm told it was fishing wire he used.

<center>https://s13.postimg.io/8upwdaffr/group1.jpg</center>
<center><sup>Grandfather with his brothers as young men</sup></center>

*He was buried at sea.* The sea in which he loved to swim in his youth, the sea that brought sustenance to the family and some good times with the boys. He was buried 1 mile out from Bridgetown, wrapped in cloth and sunk down to the darkness. A fitting end to a man who lived his life on or near the sea.

My father taught me to fish. From as early as I can remember, we'd go out to the Fathom around South Point in his little 14ft Moses catching wahoo and barracuda. The waters out that side are rough and big; I'm surprised he took me. The South Coast, we always come back to the South Coast — the stomping ground of my family for generations. From Worthing to Rockley, we belong in this place and it is in our blood. I spent many days at sea, cumulatively, with my father. From just off the coast to 90+ miles North of the island in the middle of nowhere. 

https://s13.postimg.io/md1e3bgyv/dadme1.jpg

I grew up on the South Coast, in the sun. We've always lived in that area, until recently. 

Sometimes I feel like a traitor. I've not been fishing in years, and I never was as good as my forebears. What will I teach my children?

When my father dies, we'll spread his ashes out at sea — some at the Fathom, some here and some there. Along the South Coast, from Worthing to Rockley and beyond.

## We've always been drawn to the sea. Soaked in salt water are we, from birth to the grave.

_______

If you liked this, you may like my other personal writings:

[On The Benefits of Journaling: 7 Reasons To Start](https://steemit.com/life/@jamtaylor/on-the-benefits-of-journaling-7-reasons-to-start)
["Poo-Poo" The Kitten, and the Pain of Little Tragedies](https://steemit.com/life/@jamtaylor/poo-poo-the-kitten-and-the-pain-of-little-tragedies)
[This Land Is Soaked With Sugar And Salt](https://steemit.com/life/@jamtaylor/this-land-is-soaked-with-sugar-and-salt-on-the-cognitive-dissonance-of-white-guilt)
[Krishna at the Farmer's Market -- A Lesson in Non-Attachment](https://steemit.com/life/@jamtaylor/the-portals-to-the-past-are-closing-up-around-you)
[Childhood is Portals and Colourful Wormholes](https://steemit.com/writing/@jamtaylor/childhood-is-portals-and-colourful-wormholes)
[On Inspiration: Writing from Life Experiences](https://steemit.com/writing/@jamtaylor/on-inspiration-writing-from-life-experiences)
[The portals to the past are closing up around you](https://steemit.com/life/@jamtaylor/the-portals-to-the-past-are-closing-up-around-you)


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