A very timely challenge
I have just spent two weeks on the Spanish coast – having the privilege of walking by the sea everyday and swimming in the sea for the first time in my life
I love watching the waves on the sea. I love listening to the sound of the sea.
I recently had a conversation with the mother of my lovely companion and she told me that that in Spanish the sea is both male and female – el mar and la mar. La mar when the sea is described in more poetic gentle terms.
We spent four days in Cadiz and I could not get over how beautiful the water is
The girl in the bubble 
El mar. La mar.
El mar. ¡Sólo la mar!
(Rafael Alberti)