(Not THE) Hank Zimmerman

ABOUT SOLO SAILING

The music of Solo Sailing expresses the experience of single-handling a small sailboat, sailing alone out from a protected cove into open water under motor power, and then running under sail miles offshore.

The idea for the music was inspired by years of owning and skippering a small sailboat near Point Lookout, Maryland. Point Lookout forms the southern tip of Maryland at the mouth of the Potomac River, where it meets the Chesapeake Bay. The river’s width reaches over 20 miles as it flows into the Bay.

The first times out solo sailing often provide long periods of mystical joy as the boat quietly moved along under the gentle force of the wind. But the going is not always peaceful out there.

Rapidly changing weather conditions could build up rough seas under swiftly rising winds.

Adrenaline-pumping boat-handling situations demanded lightning-fast decisions and countless decisive actions, with no one else on board to help handle them.

But any frightening experiences could never overcome a never-ending quest for adventure. In fact, the desire to go solo sailing became an obsession.

Voices from the open water always seemed to be calling out to the mind, “Come fill your sails and sail away...”

Whenever sailboats cast off from a dock to head out toward open water, it's almost always under motor power, particularly when the harbor is safely tucked away in a protected cove.

Often guided by channel markers to emerge from waters protected from the shore, the sailboat may remain under motor power as the shoreline falls farther and farther behind, her compass resolutely pointed toward deeper water.

Finally, open water is reached. Her motor is now off and her sails are raised, ready to catch some wind.

During the middle of the day, wind conditions can sometimes be relatively calm to the point of becoming doldrums, leaving the boat to drift along lazily and aimlessly with limp sails. Waiting for the wind to pick up may require great patience, but the moment can also be filled with great anticipation.

Toward all points of the horizon, the entire surface of the open water appears to be glassily smooth, disturbed only by distant, little breezes playing here and there across the still expanse, each one creating its own patch of surface ripples that gleam and sparkle in the sunlight. Eventually, one of these ripple patterns steadily begins to work its way toward the boat, as the still air now becomes a living breath.

Finally, the fresh breeze envelops the little vessel, the sails slowly fill, and with a tilt to leeward, she's off, bounding to her own magical destination, not mattering at all if she's going anywhere or nowhere. She and I are now both free, running along with the wind and the choppy waves under a vast blue and white dome of sunlit sky.

About Hank Zimmerman When he was a boy during the 1950s, Hank Zimmerman taught himself how to play the piano by ear on a battered old family upright, working out chords to pop songs heard on AM radio. At age 14 he talked his parents into signing for financing at a local music store to buy his first electric piano, a beige-colored Wurlitzer, He then joined a 60s garage band and began to work paid band gigs. Very soon afterward, the Wurly was fully paid off. Throughout an entire lifetime of living, he's always continued as a keyboard musician, until retiring for good from regular performance schedules in 2016. He then taught himself how to play the drums during the isolation of the pandemic lockdown. Soon after people started going out again to hear live music, he played a couple of live gigs – but this time as a drummer. And then over recent years, he was back on the keyboard for public performances with various groups at special live music events. Hank has been involved with home studio music production for over 25 years.

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ABOUT SOLO SAILING

Not THE Hank Zimmerman