Perhaps it’s my landlubber showing, but I see photos of ocean and sky and think it’s half empty. 
The sky is visually appealing, in fact, some of the most amazing sunsets/rises I’ve seen have been over the water…but it doesn’t seem to hold a candle to mountains (IMHO)
(e.g. http://www.millertwinracing.com/dni/lostpics/Aspens%20Changing/slides/Aspens%20Changing%20047.jpg )
I’ve always had a theory that there are ocean people and mountain people. The mountains do nothing for me. 
Boats get chicks in Bikinis (or less 
)!
Well the…why do chicks like water? (You can sunburn on land, too. )
I agree that some folks love mountains, and some love the ocean.
I was sort of a displaced ocean lover.
I spent more than 30 years in Colorful Colorado but was happy to bid I-70 adieu and head for the coast. I had lived on both coasts before 4th grade, always loved the ocean, and always missed it.
The water is warm here, I love to swim, and what’s under the surface can be fascinating.
My husband shares a boat with his brothers.
There is a real sense of escape and freedom heading out on the water.
We can pull up on other islands and hang out on the beach, swim, meet other people. We can get away from the heat on a hot summer’s day.
We’ve seen countless dolphins, squadrons of sting rays, sea turtles, manatees etc. I’ve even seen the Green Flash.
I’ve been fascinated by both. Therefore, I live halfway between them, in a land of small hills and modest lakes.
My mother, on the other hand, was a prairie person. She said that the mountains ‘just get in the way’.
Boating interests me, though it is far from a top priority. So does flying. The problem is, I get easily seasick or airsick. Therefore, I don’t partake much. (My father was in the Navy and never got seasick. I have a theory that I got my own quota of seasick tendency and all of his as well.)
Just in a DJ kinda mood, I reckon.
Enjoy!
Quasi
I like boating if there is activity associated with it - sailing, fishing, waterskiing - that kind of thing. What a lot of people seem to like that I despise is just cruising - either fast or just puttering along. An ocean cruise is the last thing of my list when I consider vacations.
When I’m on a boat but not doing anything, I get very bored and annoyed and claustrophobic and just want to jump out and swim to shore.
My company had a summer meeting in Lake Geneva (kinda like the Hamptons for the Chicago uber-rich) and one night rented a large boat for a twilight cruise around the lake. After about five minutes admiring the beautiful houses, I got bored and spent the rest of the time in the bar downstairs. I couldn’t wait for the thing to be over.
I took up sailing last summer (at a co-op, so not that pricey) and loved it. Part of it was the exhilaration of leaning way out over the water to get the boat up to speed, but a lot of it was just the activity of handling the boat. Then, I went out with a friend of my parent’s who owns a larger sailboat, and man was it boring. I mean, there was still some stuff to do, but a lot of it was just going in a roughly straight line. Whee. Give me little boats and races any day.
I own a Wellcraft Scarab. That’s my fun-in-the-sun machine. I like boating, and I am a gear head, too.
I also go fishing on my other little boat, some friends’ boats, all from Viriginia to New Jersey… the Chessie, Delaware Bay and Atlantic Ocean.
It’s in my blood. I need to be on/near water, especially salt water.
No way to explain it. If you don’t get it, I can’t make you.
Here’s my baby. Heck, I even like to just be near a boat, on a dock!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2621/4058426858_fb8666cceb_o.jpg
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Just out of curiosity, why especially salt water? Is it the size of the body of water? If that’s the case, I invite you to come summer on Lake Huron!
Wow, there is just something about salt water that adds to the atmosphere. However, I also boat the Upper Chesapeake and that’s all fresh water. I just need to be near an ocean, or very well connected to one. 80% of my boating is in salt water, and I am usually a mile or two from the Atlantic, if not right in it. Love the intercoastal waterway.
I know, I know… the big lakes can take you out to the ocean, but I guess what is in my blood is coastal living… as in Atlantic Coastal living. Give me the beautiful line of barrier islands along the East Coast and I am happy to do all my boating there.
I can’t explain it. It just is. Whether boating or swimming, it just charges all of my senses. (OK, I don’t really taste boating, unless I get splashed.)
A vacation that’s not seaside is not a vacation to me. If I’m not tracking sand around, it doesn’t count.
I remember the first non-landlocked vacation I was on. I was 11. Instead of going to Kansas, our usual trip, we instead went to Cape Cod. As I crested my first dune, I looked down at the water and thought “Why would anyone live anywhere but here?” It still baffles me.
Don’t you be dissin’ the Jersey shore. I’ve never been, but I’ve heard that it’s some of the most awesome beach in the uS.
I don;t know the Chesapeake, but I’ve sailed through Boston Harbor. Not quite what I’d call relaxing, due to the heavy traffic. But it was a fantastic day that I’ll never forget.
I don’t own a boat - though I would love one. But there is a certain allure to the ocean and to water that perhaps some people just don’t understand. To each his own. But I won’t really live in the middle of the country even though I rarely go to the ocean just because I like having it nearby. Don’t know why, really.
I see your Lake Erie, and raise you one Stockholm Archipelago.
It all starts with a canoe. You get in the canoe, and paddle out, alone with your thoughts… but it doesn’t go fast enough, and paddling is hard work, so you upgrade.
You move to a 14’ Aluminum boat with a 15hp motor, and of course, now it’s too fast for fishing, so you need a trolling motor… and electronics.
But… your 14’ Aluminum boat doesn’t have the mounting space for fishing electronics, so you start thinking about a bigger boat…
I’m in the 14’ Aluminum crowd now, and it’s a great boat for the spaces that I want to use it on, but if I want to get out into the ocean, I’d need something a bit bigger. Thankfully, I prefer the fresh water lakes & the pond that my neighborhood has access to.
I think many new owners do start too big, and lose interest due to the difficulties involved in transportation, launching, registration & maintenance costs, and storage in the off season. I do think though, that if you have regular access to the water, it’s a very natural thing to move towards.
A funny thing about sailboats as well – from casual observation, they would appear to be very relaxing – and they can be. But it’s kind of amazing to me that when you actually get out there and do it, there’s very little idle time. There is constantly some little adjustment to make. Something always needs trimming, jibing, knotting, or navigating around. And that’s not even considering things that need to be bailed, repaired, or cleaned.
Man, that thing is awesome; I’m jealous.* Hearing one of those things snarl just gets my own motor running; it’s like a Sunday afternoon at the drag track or a Harley engine running.
*Actually, I’m envious and I covet your boat.
That’s why.
I’m from a naval family (grandfather was a Commander, uncle a Captain, other uncle a sailmaker) and though I live inland, the draw is always there; my parents retired to the sea and have various small boats, and there’s nothing I like more than sailing the channels of the inland sea in their dinghy, propelled by nothing but nature.
