Fernando do Noronha and onwards

Yesterday at about midday we could start making out the outline of the
archipelago called Fernando do Noronha. We decided to run in close to have
a good look and feast our eyes on land again. Haven't seen any for about
two weeks and what a stunningly beautiful group of islands this is. Green
and lush with high peaks here and there, we were greeted by a small pod of
dolphins, albeit only for a very short time. Which reminds me that I want
to copy and paste some interesting collective nouns for fish at the end of
this blog. Haven't seen any dolphins on the trip so far and what an
immense pleasure to watch their antics around the boat. On one of my
previous trips I stopped here for a day or so,and had a most fabulous
time. We were invited to some traditional dancing and was completely swept
away by the rhythm and movement as we joined the circle of dancers. Was a
big problem to get on and off the island as there is no ferry service and
we had to rely on local fisherman to give us a ride in and out. And pretty
expensive as well to clear in and out, but in the end it was worth it.

I have carefully plotted our next few waypoints to find the best possible
currents running up the north eastern Brazilian coast, and already it is
paying dividends. At the moment just about 8kts of wind from behind, twin
headsails up front and one motor running and we are doing between 7 and 8
kts. The boat is very still, hardly any swell or movement, nearly surreal.
And we expect it to get even better, much better. Our weather forecast
shows us some wind coming in from the east to northeast which will place
us on a beam reach, and we will be able to use our main and headsail
again. And with the ever-increasing current, we may just take off and
start flying. Or think we are flying at least. We have a fairly tough
schedule to keep to and keep to it we will. I nearly said come hell or
high water but that will be a bit presumptuous.

An interesting observation I read recently is that we call our planet
earth, although it really is mostly water. I know the pacific Ocean alone
covers more than 70% of our planet, and from outer space we are clearly
the blue planet. It is disconcerting how we mostly see things only from
our own limited point of view. If we travel really far back in time, we
will also discover that the earth once rotated in the opposite direction.
We got struck by a huge meteorite which threw us completely out of orbit
and caused unimaginable havoc. Where there was once sea, there is now
mountain peaks, and we find remnants and fossils of sea creatures on some
of the highest peaks. Such a planet, this. To use a phrase from mail I
recently received from a yacht called True Blue. Satellite pictures also
reveal ancient and huge river systems where there is now desert. And
evidence of pre-ancient civilizations, far older than we ever imagined.
Not too long ago we thought we were the centre of the universe and that
the earth was flat. It was preposterous to consider that the earth was
round and the first observers of this fact was burned at the stake for
being heretics. It was far easier to see heaven above and hell below for
the religious fraternity and this little observation alone turned their
theories upside down, inside out, and really a fallacy. If you follow art
from the very beginning you will find how we evolved in our knowledge of
who and what we are, although I don't think we even have a clue of what we
really are as human beings. Over the estimated 160 billion years planet
earth has been in orbit, we have only been here for a very, very short
time, and we have made a royal mess of it so far.

But inherent in every one of us is the real truth, if only we can reach
that deep. The brave seafarers of old that ventured into uncharted
territory conjured up images of grandiose monsters from above and below,
and brave they were indeed. My daughter really made me smile once, as she
does so many times. She came to the conclusion that we all relate back to
Noah as him and his family and his zoo and his garden were the only living
things left after the flood. Except for the creatures that lived in the
water of course. And from Noah and his ark all living things on land must
then have evolved. And we are therefore all mariners at the core. Can you
for a little while place yourself in Noah's position ? Adrift on this
rapidly receding body of water, looking for a piece of dry land to safely
land his ark. In a very real sense we have evolved from mammals. Have you
ever seen a sperm cell swimming around looking for an egg cell to swim
into. And then the trouble starts, or rather the miracle. But that is how
we all started, as a little swimming tadpole kind of thing. And then we
grew into a foetus, surrounded by water and survived there for roughly
nine months before we were pushed or pulled into the world as we know it.
And the first thing we do when we are born with our very first breath is
let out a heart rendering cry. So our affinity with water runs really
deep. It is in a most and very real way where we all come from.

Now for an interesting little copy and paste. My 1st Mate Malcolms
daughter Carla did some research and found all these amuzing collective
nouns for fish. I hope it makes you smile a little and gives wings to your
visual capacity.

Collective Nouns : One of the many oddities of the English language is the
multitude of different names given to collections or groups, be they
beasts, birds, people or things. Many of these collective nouns are
beautiful and evocative, even poetic :

A company of angel fish
A company of archer fish
A battery of barracudas
A shoal of barbels
A fleet of bass (or shoal)
A grind of blackfish
A school of butterfly fish
A school of cod
A swarm of dragonet fish
A troop of dogfish
A swarm of eels
A shoal of fish (or catch or draught or fray or haul or run or school)
A glide of flying fish (:))
A glint of goldfish (or troubling)
A glean of herrings (or army or shoal)
A shoal of mackerels
A shoal of minnows (or steam or stream or swarm)
A pack of perch
A shoal of pilchards (or school)
A cluster of porcupine fish
A party of rainbow fish
A shoal of roach
A bind of salmons (or draught or leap or run or school or shoal)
A family of sardines
A herd of seahorses
A shoal of shad
A shiver of sharks (or school or shoal)
A troupe of shrimps
A quanity of smelts
A shoal of sticklebacks (or spread)
A flotilla of swordfish
A hover of trouts (or shoal)
A float of tunas (troup)
A pod of whitings

And with that I wish you a wonderful day and week ahead. After Tuesday
even the days of the weeks reads W.T.F. Very fishy, very.

Paul