wind direction is also starting to come around and curving us nicely in
to Fortaleza. My crew must really have faith in me. For the novice it
will look like we are not sailing the shortest and fastest route. Aiming
a bit higher and getting a better angle on our sails and trusting that
the trade winds will turn us in.
Yesterday I was explaining how we now intend to catch a fish. In the
interem it dawned on me that we cannot turn the boat around in a flash
as we can on a powercat. We are running with two headsails and will
first have to drop the one and furl in the other before we can turn on
the motor and turn around. If the wind was coming from the side, on a
beam reach as we call it, it would be very easy. Man overboard drills we
practice this all the time. And by the time I have dropped the headsails
and turned the boat around the blue bucket will be floating in a big
blue ocean with the morning sun blinding us. So once again I had to up
the game a bit. How will we see the bucket was the problem. Took me a
few minutes to come up with a solution. Attach a danbouy to the bucket.
A danbouy is a weighted pole with a float towards the bottom. A long red
pole with a flag on top. It was developed for a man overboard situation,
and in SA it is law that we carry these. If I am not mistaken it was
developed in SA due to our sometimes big and rough seas. Sailing from
Cape Town to Durban is considered the most dangerous passage in the
world. Many reason why this is so. Back to the point, should the fish
take our lure now the bucket will drop and the danbouy will follow and
we will be able to see it from far away. The flag on top is red and
yellow, so easy to spot on the ocean. Can't give up, we have to keepon
trying and up our game to take on the big game fish without rod and
reel. Our first choice would be a dorado but we will be truelly thanful
for any fish. Not that we will starve if we don't catch a fish, it will
just improve our diet substantially. It is a rather complicated looking
set-up but as long as everything is free to fall into the water when the
fish strikes you are good. Last night we took the set-up down and Nick
who is doing the morning watch has just set it up. Tied on a new lure
and rigged the whole kebang, so here goes to nothing or......watch this
space.
You may wonder how some of the content from the last few postings link
together. Body, mind, spirit, soul and time. One word. Freedom. The
French have a saying, liberte toujours, freedom always. How this little
word relates to your body, your mind, your spirit, your soul and time I
will leave to your imagination, for now, ha ha ha. On the subject of
body, mind, spirit and soul I have received the following from one of
our readers.
The body of man- our flesh bone blood were made of the dust of the earth
.(Body Earth.)
That is the part with which we are most familiar with. The physical side
of
man.
The Spirit of Man.
Our God conciousness. God breathed into the nostrils of Adam, giving him
the spirit ( Wind Breath)
The spirit is the Capital city of the human personality.
The soul of man.
The soul is self conciousness, it stands for the individual, personal
life.
Hungry soul, a weary soul, a thirsty soul, a grieved soul, a loving
soul.
The soul joins two worlds, the physical and the spiritual.
The soul is to keep the body, as the lowest in subjection to the spirit
the
highest.
Man was created with the ability to think, love, and
make decisions.
On the origin of Love I am still waiting to hear from this reader but
thanks for the input.
Nautical expression today is 'Clean Slate'. It was the custom in the old
days to record the courses and distances on a log slate and, at the end
of the watch, transfer this information into the deck logbook. When this
was comnplete, the slate was wiped clean for the next watch to take
over. From this comes the notion of forgetting what has gone before and
starting anew.
Our current position is 05*31'S/025*46'W @ 07:00 UTC - 2. Yes, we have
changed our time on the boat again and we are now four hours behind SA
time. We like the sun to rise and set at abour 6. We are 760nm from
Fortaleza and can start expecting more shipping traffic.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend.
Captain Paul
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