Polarized Lenses Improve the Views
Polarized sunglasses have changed my life. I know I’m a little late in the game on this one, but it’s not the first time that I’ve made a life-changing discovery decades after the rest of the world. In 2009, I saw REM in concert for the first time, and I was blown away—um, two decades after all my friends had discovered the band.. So I'm used to being out of the loop.
This time, I unceremoniously picked up a pair of sunglasses with polarized lenses at Nanny Cay before I went out for my sailing lesson, not realizing how my life was about to improve. I will never buy non-polarized lenses again. Polarized lenses work, according to wisegeek.com, “much like a venetian blind controls sunlight through a window.” So you can see through them, but they are still blocking the sun with ray-deflecting strips of polarization. Sailors wear them because they greatly reduce the sun’s glare on the water. Fishermen wear them because they allow visibility through the water. I wear them because they make everything look pretty.
A few weeks ago, when motoring over to the North Sound, I noticed that some low clouds in the distance seemed to be emanating a turquoise glow then realized it was the reflection from the sea onto the clouds that was making them appear to have a bluegreen tint. I took off my sunglasses and could barely see it. I put them back on, and the green clouds returned. Trippy. Then when we navigated between the channel markers in the Eustatia Sound, I could see the reef below like I never had before.
Driving has also improved. Not because I can see the road better but because the vistas that I pass every day are suddenly more stunning—bluer and clearer waves touch the north shore beaches, azure waters surround Buck Island on the south side, and even Road Harbour looks inviting. That, I think, is reason enough to buy a pair.
