expedition over showboat

Lesson for today: 
    Better to accept what is
   before you than to resent what
   is not.


I'm reading "Five Year Voyage: Exploring Latin America's Coasts & Rivers" by Stephen Ladd. Its very cheap on Kindle, & documents an epic voyage with great modesty. Ladd also wrote "Three Years in a Twelve Foot Boat" as a younger fellow. He voyaged dinghy style US to Brazil I think. I can't read it because the writing drived me mad, due mainly to the author's expression. Ladd apologised for it at the beginning of this latest book. 
Anyway, 18 years on from that first hitout  Ladd (now fifty something & with his girlfriend) take off in a decked over Sea Pearl (18 or 21'?) dinghy. Its still dinghy cruising style with lots of rowing, bumping the bottom, mooring to trees etc. I love the read & the doggedness of their adventure. 
As I read this I am aware that with my upcoming ownership of a bespoke timber trailer sailer I could be trapped into nursing her. spending more time polishing & varnishing than sailing. I need to commit to the maxim adopted by sailors i regard, especially Bill Tilman & Edward Allcard: to get the boat ready on basic form & go, making further enhancements as the voyage allows or demands. We're all aware of the phenomenon of old sailors rotting away in port with an ever-growing to do list clutched in their hands, never to venture offshore. I really hope to punish Selkie, sailing her hard through constant use. If before an Australian Wooden Boat Festival am too busy sailing, or sail to the venue, rather than have Selkie arrive, freshly varnished on a well-oiled trailer, I will have achieved my goal.   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

a skin thing?

As a surfer from my childhood years I escalated to surfing most days. If i wasn't surfing I was just going on or out of the surf, or at school or in latter yesrs work. Some school days would see me run home from the beach dripping wet, stuff cereal down & jog to school. At lunch break I would grab a bike & get a surf in.  On my twenties i took up sailing. If I wasn't actually sailing I would be working on my boat getting things ready. I spent two enjoyable winters on the tropical north.  In later life, I've mowed lawns for an income & continued to swim & sail when I can.  As old surfers know, there's a toll on your skin. Some surfers I know have died or been treated for skin cancer, so it's a vocational hazard.  Added to this, I have a genetic weakness towards skin cancer. My great grandmother passed in midlife & her daughter, my grandmother, had several skin grafts on her nose to manage skin cancer.  Last month my younger brother Pete had a ...
Read more

the american dilemma

Image
Ever willing to criticise  The Pres with the Snake Eyes When he calls out "Fake News!". The media lead a people's chorus of boos.   The same singers when at home Before the neon god they lay prone Soaking up bullshit ads & sculpted boobs Glitzy endless crap on the tube.
Read more

mass political deception

Image
On the day a gunman nicked ex president Trump's ear the world politcians decried violence as evil, undemocratic & so on, more than 39 people were killed in Palestine. These events highlight mass hypocrisy across the world with regards violence & race.  No one in the media industry will ever mention this hypocrisy.
Read more