Playing The Wind Waker inspired me to build a boat. There, I’ve said it. It still sounds a little silly – to me at least – and I’ll get to that. But can we at least acknowledge that the game made a convincing case for the joys of sailing?
In it, the sea-breeze blew in curlicue swirls and the ocean was a rippling, rolling blanket of azure blue. Seagulls clustered, waves crested, and distant islands sat perched on the horizon like mist-wrapped, unexplored gifts.
So I spent two days one summer sawing and nailing, refashioning old garden panels and abandoned flat-pack furniture into a vessel. One fit for seafaring and sea creatures (read: the nearby lake and the ducks). I made the boatiest thing I could.
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