Reflections upon 'My Life Afloat'!

[Yer Ole Sea Daddy]

Reflections
upon
'MyLife Afloat':​

Ah!
The comforting, grounding experience
of the
security
of the
'fluid buoyancy'
deriving from the dynamic, conflicting forces
wherein the impact of our seas and skies
are harmonized into the eternally changing waves
constantly monitored by the graceful trailing tip of a seagull's wing
resonating in a flight pattern as if tethered
a constant quarter inch from the wave's
fluctuating cutting edge!​

Ah!​

Ars Naturae!
(Barry Herbert Parmeter, M.A.)​

What floats your boat?​

 

[jeffnick]

Hours and hours of pure boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

 

[Tony B]

Hours and hours of pure boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

I definitely hear the SAILOR coming out in you.

 

[Yer Ole Sea Daddy]

Hours and hours of pure boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

I can certainly relate to 'Moments of Sheer Terror', but will have to take lessons from you on how to experience what you call 'Pure Boredom'...even afloat!

Yer Ole Sea Daddy

 

[Tony B]

I can certainly relate to 'Moments of Sheer Terror', but will have to take lessons from you on how to experience what you call 'Pure Boredom'...even afloat!

Yer Ole Sea Daddy

If you havent taken long passages in a sailboat, you may not have experienced the Pure Boredom part. Like a full week of absolutely no wind.
Just drifting.

 

[Yer Ole Sea Daddy]

If you havent taken long passages in a sailboat, you may not have experienced the Pure Boredom part. Like a full week of absolutely no wind.
Just drifting.

Holy Flipper Dip! No wind for a week?

You might have to go sit in the pulpit and whistle "Here I sit like a Bird in the Wilderness' toward the sail to create enough wind to at least make the sail look like it's full!

YOSD

 

[ARoss]

The ultimate "no wind" scenario"


"Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink."

S. T. Coleridge

 

[Tony B]

About a 2 months ago or so, a friend of mind set sail alone from Galveston Bay to eventually get to Iceland. It took him almost 4 weeks to get from Galveston Bay to Marathon, Florida which is normally around an 8 to 10 day trip.
Week 1 was pretty good sailing. Week 2 has average winds running 20 - 25 kts for about a week - the wrong way. Week 3 he drifted for the entire week. Not even enough wind to fill the sails - the sheer boredom part. At the beginning of week 4, he had nice sailing. Then all of a sudden he saw a major storm brewing on the horizon. He went down below to get on his safety harness and get ready to lower his sails. He came out of the cabin and all of a sudden the boat just layed over and his mast slapped the water. That was the beginning of the sheer terror part. His sails were still all of the way up. Bottom line - he is now in Marathon, Fl. still waiting for more parts to come before he can continue his trip. His Jib (front sail) was completely shreded and his main sail heavily damaged. He lost his Radar, his SSB and VHF antennas, also lost his radar, solar panels and his wind generator caught fire. He now had to figure out how to sail without the fron sail and a tattered mainsail. His small diesel engine was replaced with a fully electric engine. Well without the wind generator and solar panels he slowly limped his way to Marathon.
So, his 8 day trip turned into over 4 weeks and experienced both the long periods of sheer boredom and the short periods of sheer terror. The long periods of boredom punctuated by short periods of sheer terror is an old sailing expresion.

 

[Tony B]

The ultimate "no wind" scenario"
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink."

S. T. Coleridge

From "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" if I am remembering correctly.

Ross is also an old sailor

 

[Yer Ole Sea Daddy]

About a 2 months ago or so,............So, his 8 day trip turned into over 4 weeks and experienced both the long periods of sheer boredom and the short periods of sheer terror. The long periods of boredom punctuated by short periods of sheer terror is an old sailing expresion.

There's a 'seastory' that will become a 'family heirloom' still being passed on by his great-great grandkids, eh?

YOSD

 

[jeffnick]

Everything on your boat is broken. You just don't know it yet.

If the line is too short, you can always splice two together.
If the line is too long, you're out of luck.

 

[Tony B]

If the line is too short, you can always splice two together.
If the line is too long, you're out of luck.

I need to start a file of quotabe quotes.:lol:

 

[skipperdude]

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.​

Shakespear.
The old boy had it going on back in the day Eh?

SD

​

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
YOU'VE GOT LINES???????

 

[Yer Ole Sea Daddy]

I need to start a file of quotabe quotes.:lol:

"Stabilitus stabiliter intra instabilitatem instabilientem!"
"Firmly grounded within fluctuating fluidity!"
(Barry Herbert Parmeter, M.A.)​

 

[Andy G]

Greetings,
YOU'VE GOT LINES???????

No no, he meant Lions, it's hard to catch his accent.

 

[jeffnick]

I worked as a marine mechanic for a spell. A fellow invited me out to have a look at his dead little sailboat auxiliary engine. He offered me a helpful tidbit of information...he said, "It was running when it quit."

 

[skipperdude]

Running when It quit.

Now that is funny:lol::lol: