Bach has long been my favorite composer. I just read in STORM PASSAGE, “I would have been more proud to have been you than any other man who has ever lived.” The ‘you’ is Johann Sebastian.
I played his music in the Southern Ocean and specifically off Cape Horn. Although I don’t recall why, his “Little Fugue in G Minor” was a particular favorite then. It isn’t any longer. But there is no bad Bach.
I happened recently to receive an email from Jud mentioning that with understanding. He wrote: A mad and complex Bach fugue, bringing musical, mathematical order, in the greybeard wilds of the Southern Ocean on a steadily leaking boat!
That is exactly right.
And from Armando comes a link to an unexpected, and unexpectedly effective, paring of guitar and trombone playing Bach’s unfinished Contrapunctus 14, which appears three times in my Requiem playlist.
Some scholars claim that this is not Bach’s last work. One of his sons said that it is. I prefer to agree with the son. I see Johann working, being interrupted by a visitor knocking on the door or his wife calling him to dinner, getting up from his desk and never coming back.
Thank you Armando for the link.
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At the Sailing Anarchy site this morning is mention of a video of a truly ingenious small boat winter haul out. The Sailing Anarchy link didn’t work for me. You can find the video here.
I signed up to receive ten more free videos.
The first was about a couple who sailed from North America to New Zealand in a 24’ Pacific Seacraft. A little over a minute in the voice over says, “We wonder how anyone can sail so far in a boat so small.” And I stopped watching.
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One of the very first things I do when I get up in the morning on GANNET is turn on the Sony radio. It is set to Radio New Zealand Concert, the national classical music station and my favorite in the world. I listen intermittently during the day and play my own music in the evenings.
Back in the flatlands, I miss New Zealand Concert. Chicago has an uninspired classical station.
So I downloaded the Radio New Zealand app to both my iPhone and iPad mini, and now with a couple of taps, via the Internet and an Apple TV, I hear New Zealand Concert live, though what I am accustomed to listening to at 7 a.m. is on in Evanston at noon the preceding day.
I am listening as I write this.
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I am willing to learn from others, but often I am doing things no one else has ever done or even thought of, and can’t.
My sailing for next year is set, time and chance permitting, but the year after I will make the decision at St. Helena to go northwest to Panama or southwest to the Falklands and an attempt at Cape Horn from the east.
You might think that circumnavigating in a Moore 24 would be enough, and perhaps it will be. But if you can cross the Pacific, you can cross the smaller oceans, and I am still seeking to test my limits.
I often change my mind about which direction I will go from St. Helena several times a day and do not know what I will ultimately do.
I do not mention this anywhere but on this site. That is one of the perks you get for being here. I can’t offhand think of any others.
So with the possible prospect of cold weather and cold water sailing in GANNET, and cold water in GANNET, I am considering buying a dry suit, specifically an Ocean Rodeo Ignite. Perhaps it should be mentioned that I already have two good suits of foul weather gear.
Parenthetically, when I rounded Cape Horn the first time, I did so in foul weather gear labelled ‘coastal’ which was all I could afford.
Vito Dumas, the first man to round the Horn and survive, had less than that and stuffed newspapers inside his to keep warm. Or try to.
I have rounded Cape Horn twice and spent more than a year south of 40ºS, so I know what it is like down there; but if any of you have used Ocean Rodeo or other dry suits or have advice about clothing for cold weather sailing, I’d appreciate the benefit of your experience.
