By Sam Harris/Correspondent
Sometimes my thoughts take me to a place that is so serene in its silence and beauty. It’s a place I don’t know and have never been. I can visualize my surroundings and have touched within a few thousand miles of it often. I have even tasted it.
It’s the last escape without a geotag or some 10,000 Instagram pictures of girls in bikinis left here on earth. The middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The last frontier. The seas of vastness. The depths of doldrums. The only place to be completely alone without a cold beer from the corner shop, worthless junk mail delivered daily, birds chirping, power lines buzzing, two-day Amazon delivery, smells .… of flowers, candle stores in the mall, paper factories, barbecues.
I’m not talking about the edge of the Gulf Stream or a few hundred miles offshore with a good radio connection. Cut yourself off entirely from the nonsense and bask in your mind, hopefully a sane mind, and rock steadily in the horse latitudes of introspection.
Maybe I am romanticizing something stale, but right now in the madness of summer, it sounds downright dreamy. The chaos of modern civilization has sent many a man to explore the top waters of our oceans, and I am starting to make sense of their voyage. It’s wild and unreliable, but as long as there’s a steady flow of ice, lots of citrus to ward off the scurvy, a decent supply of soggy peanut butter and jellys and an endless supply of booze, I am ready for the ocean to meet the sea.
When the ocean meets the sea
2 oz Gin
1 oz Tangerine juice, fresh
¼oz Lime juice
½oz Honey simple syrup*
Sparkling wine, like Spanish Cava
Add equal parts honey and hot water and stir until dissolved. Cover and chill.
Shake juice, syrup and gin to a shaker with ice, and pour all contents into a glass. Top with sparkling wine. Garnish with tangerine peel and candied kaffir lime leaf.