The sea is always the same. In the immutability of their surroundings the foreign shores, the foreign faces, the changing immensity of life, glide past, veiled not by a sense of mystery but by a slightly disdainful ignorance; for there is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the sea itself, which is the mistress of his existence and as inscrutable as Destiny. For the rest, after his hours of work, a casual stroll or a casual spree on shore suffices to unfold for him the secret of a whole continent, and generally he finds the secret not worth knowing.

From “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad

In a few sentences, Joseph Conrad summarizes the mystery of the sea and the attraction that exerts upon us all and particularly on seamen whose “mistress of their existence” has always captured their imagination. In Spanish, “sea” is a feminine noun because men bestowed upon the waters the same allure as they grant to a woman’s irresistible beauty and magnetism.