I go to the factory, also known as our guest bedroom, within minutes of my waking every morning, usually between 5 and 6 AM, and work the early shift on what I am presently calling GANNET SIX.
In doing so I came across something I wrote long ago about mystical experiences.
And Tolstoy quoting Lermontov:
He in his madness prays for storms
And dreams that storms will bring him peace
The poems are from Fernando Pessoa, 1888-1935.
The stupidity I read at Apple News+ in a sailing magazine article about those who despise technology and claim that GPS stands for ‘General Paralysis of the Sailor’. I am certain that Captain Cook would not agree with them. He had no conflict about carrying an early chronometer with him on his voyages, John Harrison’s invention that enabled sailors for the first time to be able to ascertain longitude with certainty.
I am of the last generation who had to navigate by sextant. On my first two circumnavigations there was no alternative. I still carry a plastic sextant on GANNET and believe that if you cross oceans it is probably advisable to know at least how to take a noon sight for latitude. But I have not taken a sextant sight in more than thirty years and I dare say that I have probably sailed far more in those years than the fools who shun technological advances. I trust that they are still using cotton sails.
The same crowd also say: "You must carry paper charts in case your electrics go down / you get hit by lightning!" Forgetting that cheap tablets and phones can be stuck in a lighting protected case, and you probably have more chance of winning the Lottery than having all your tablets/phones/laptops go down at the same time. You can even buy portable power banks for under $500 that will last you a decent ocean crossing to charge up your phone if your house bank goes down. Even more ridiculous is the contention: "If Russia and USA go to war, GPS will be turned off to the public". Umm yeah, so that would be called WWIII and I don't think any of us will be around for long to worry about it.
ReplyDeleteIs the paper chart question not a little different? If your electrics go down a paper chart won't help unless you have an idea where you are. So, plastic sextant. The guy years ago who lost his radar in Long Island Sound and raced back and forth across the sound, completely disoriented in the dark, would not have been helped with a paper chart. But in the 2014 Volvo race, a boat fully crewed by expert sailors barreled into a reef that wasn't presented on the screen because of how it was zoomed. And innumerable coastal sailors have punched in a waypoint for where they want to go, without knowing that the plotted track crosses hazards ("hard things"). Same thing: head inside the screen instead of outside the boat.
ReplyDeleteThanks again for the poems Webb!
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
Rich
I am always pleased to hear that the poems are appreciated. I have come to believe that one of my unexpected functions is to pass on some words of others that would not otherwise be remembered.
ReplyDelete