Kat, the thing that makes or break people on this subject (accepting Kendall's point about those who must be there regardless of conditions) is along this line, I think. You can see yourself confined to a small and maybe safe platform at risk in a huge hostile environment, or you can see yourself at large in an amazing, constantly changing, constantly beautiful and constantly challenging environment where the horizons are big enough for anyone to feel fully expanded in. When I worked ships, it was mostly the latter point of view I took, and it was only when extremely fatigued, chilled, or afraid that I found myself retreating to the more material perspective of just trying to stay safe. Some folks, especially those given to motion sickness, general timidity, or just people with little familiarity or tolerance for such a highly random place as the sea, would tend to start from a tight grip on the physical "defenses" of the boat and not move outward from that unless they had some kind of epiphany, such as meeting a whale, or seeing a rainbow. I guess it is a bit of a generalization to use two broad classes like this, I am sure there all sorts of shades of gray in between, but that's how I saw it at the time years ago.

A.