The Sea is a mysterious thing in that all the rivers run into it... and yet it is not full.
The Sea is a place of dissolution and reconfiguration, the origin of all life as well as a place where the monstrous nature of the world cannot be ignored. Its vastness, lulling waves, and unseen depths all suggest a working of time beyond the human capacity to perceive it, almost as if it gives the human a glimpse at the workings of the cosmic.
The Sea is a destructive element for man (insofar as man is defined by going where he is not wanted and does not belong). It is the place where man is not naturally adapted, and so is the only place in which man feels he can really live.
The Sea is a place where the days, weeks, and months fall away quicker than anywhere else into the past. They seem to be left astern as easily as the light air-bubbles in the swirls of the ship's wake.
The Sea is a perfidious environment which can never be fully trusted, for even its playfulness is deadly... sooner or later it will test everyone who ventures upon it.
The Sea is a living (and almost personal) power, with a will and purpose of its own, always subtle, sometime sportive, sometimes malevolent, mocking, challenging and defying the human insects that dare to contend with its mighty mysterious forces.
The Sea is a feminine, a living being, a mother Goddess in a way that implies reciprocal obligation and an ecological ethics.