你字好看嗎？我寫信給你。
因為電子海圖機的進步，我們今天可以不需要事先做太多的航行計畫，登船後直接出港，來一場與海的速食約會。紙本海圖導航像是過時代的愛情，但我喜歡如此，這是人類百年來所累積的技術，而海圖像極了情書，她有真實的質地，可以觸摸每一方寸，可以記錄我走過的每一片海，是泥？是沙？是暗礁？，每年廿秒西的磁偏差，15秒一閃的白光燈塔⋯⋯就這樣，一來，一往，這是與海的老派約會。
海之大，我們至今都還沒能完全描繪她的模樣。這是我喜歡的約會。
你寫情書嗎？很久沒有。
你字好看嗎？我寫信給你。
《老派約會之必要》 李維菁
Is your handwriting any good? I’m writing you a letter.
With the rise of electronic chartplotters, we’ve grown used to setting sail without much planning — jump aboard, cast off, and begin a quick fling with the sea.
But paper charts? They’re an old-school kind of love. And I’m fond of that.
They hold a century of seafaring knowledge — etched, folded, and smudged with salt and pencil marks. They’re like handwritten letters from the ocean:
tactile, deliberate, honest.
On a chart, I can touch every bay and shoal I’ve passed.
Was it mud? Sand? A reef?
Magnetic variation creeping 20 seconds west each year.
A lighthouse flashing white every 15 seconds.
Mark by mark, a dialogue unfolds.
This is not fast food. It’s courtship — the slow, old-fashioned kind.
The sea is vast. Even today, we haven’t fully drawn her face.
That’s why I keep going back — to get to know her better.
Do you still write love letters?
Has it been a while?
Is your handwriting any good?
I’m writing you a letter.
“The Necessity of Old-Fashioned Dates” — Li Weijing