Naked and Natural
We have always felt comfortable in our skin and felt our naked body is the true us, not a facade of what costume we choose to wear to present ourselves to others. Sometimes, we forget that others may not be used to our nudity.
When we are on our sailboat, it feels natural to strip off our clothing to feel the warm salt air on our bodies and be free. Recently, a male friend who knows us from the textile world came along on an evening sail. Without thinking, as my husband sailed us out of the harbor, I went below deck and stripped off my clothing. I lay in the forward berth, enjoying the rocking motion and sound of the waves against the bow.
Our friend came down below deck and stopped, immediately apologizing as if he walked in on me by surprise. I finally convinced him he was fine, and I was okay with him being in the cabin. It took him some time to get comfortable, but he eventually appreciated our nakedness as both my husband and I remained nude for the duration of our cruise outside of port.
He never undressed with us but insisted he wished he had the confidence to go naked, too.
If you’re so comfortable, why cover your face?
I've previously posted in response to one of yours about being nude with non-nudes, but I think that its important that nudists are not afraid be open about their nudism wherever possible. If we only ever get naked at home alone, or at clubs behind gates and fences, than I can't see how we can convince wider society that social nudity is acceptable, hiding nudism away can imply that there is something wrong with naked human beings socialising. So, I think that it is good to keep this subject in view.
I've lived nude at home for many years. We decided to make home clothing-optional about 25 years ago, after we got fed up with 'covering up' to answer the door to friends and family when they were expected, we still covered up for 'unknown' callers. Both families knew that we were nudists, as did most close friends, quite a lot of those were nudists as well. We started telling more textile friends who hadn't previously known about our nudism that we prefer to remain naked at home, most took the attitude that we were friends beforehand, so it didn't matter if we were naked or not. Over time we lost track of exactly who we'd told about our nudism, or which textile friends had visited while we were nude. It didn't really matter to us, our choice to inform potential visitors about our nudism meant that we didn't mind who knew or saw us naked.
Inevitably there were a few occasions where an uniformed friend or two turned up and were surprised to find the door-opener nude and then a bit later that the other one of us was too. But it all turned out OK in the end, as like your sailing friend who stumbled on you nude below deck they've tended to apologise with some apparent uncertainty, but our assurances that we were comfortable nude in clothing-optional settings eventually relaxed them, just as you relate here. That wish that he expressed about wishing to have the same confidence to go naked is one that I've heard from textile hikers that have seen me with a group of friends when we're hiking nude. None have as yet taken up our invitations to join us hiking nude, sadly.