16 SOUNDS

How I Found My Own Personal "Point Break"

-  Steve Earley

It all looks so much different now. Gone are last year’s cold northeast winds, grey skies, spitting rain, and waves coming offthe ocean and rolling up Sapelo Sound. Gone is the high tide that masked the shoreline and leftme with nothing but a continuous line of marsh grass ahead. I remember wondering “Where is the hard turn to port on the Front River?” And just like that, a solid line of marsh opened up. I quickly pushed the tiller to starboard and Spartina jibed, the gaff-rigged main swung over and so did the mizzen, but too fast and too hard and I heard the sound of wood being wrenched apart. I shook my head, took a moment before looking back to see the the mizzen dragging behind Spartina. And that was the end of last year’s sail.

This year, it is completely different. Blue skies and getting warmer by the minute. Sail up a calm, peaceful Sapelo Sound. Leave the Sound and head south on the Front River, wind over the port quarter. Follow the winding river, part of the ICW in Georgia, as it bends to the northwest then curves southwest. The low tide reveals the shoreline and from a hundred yards away I can already see that muddy point where I will need to jibe. You won’t find it marked on any charts, only in my mind where I will always consider it to be my own personal “Point Break.” I text my wife and daughters, “Rounded Point Break, all masts intact.”

I had been looking forward to this moment for a year.