"The best-laid plans of mice and men / Often go awry"

I have been contemplating for days, the best way to share how my original plans of staying on Armadek changed twelve days ago.


Recently having been reminded of some of the greatest works of poetry - this morning as I'm listening to yet another batch of rain fall in Spain -  a Scots poem "To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough" written by Robert Burns in 1785 came to mind.  


The romantic idea of experiencing something through nature is as old as time, which is why at least in America we often remind someone who is working non-stop and keeping up with every responsibility and expectation almost to the detriment of their joy to "stop and smell the roses." 


As I began planning this trip four months ago, I began researching, studying, and investigating (as anyone who knows me knows I can do on almost an obsessive level) every possible option until I felt I had the best laid plan that met all of my criteria.  As with anyone who is a planner nothing pleases us more than when things start falling into place once we decide what direction we will go, and things did for a time.  


While many things in life look fantastic on paper, the reality can actually be something quite different.  Once on the trip, I took note of a few things that were not quite in alignment of my expectations  but I pressed on in order to stick to "the plan."  Finally, there was a deal breaker, at least for me, so I turned a corner and didn't look back. No plan.  


One of the goals or criteria I had at the onset of this adventure was to learn to sail, and that is exactly what I am now doing.  I've enrolled in a sailing school http://www.farosailingschool.com/ and successfully completed the first class.  The school came recommended, but I didn't have time to do any research, I just showed up. 


The only plan I have now is to complete the next week of class.  


Experiencing nature, is understanding that the very beauty that we appreciate whether it's the Grand Canyon or a gazillion stones deposited on Chesil Beach 10-thousand years ago was not the result of the best laid plan, but by change is that is constantly going on in nature.  It's all around us.  Sometimes the best plan, is not to have one. 

Happy Easter

Happy Easter / Feliz Pascua de Reyes

Ithaka - C.P Cavafy

As you set out for Ithaka hope the voyage is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery. Laistrygonians and Cyclops, angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them: you’ll never find things like that on your way as long as you keep your thoughts raised high, as long as a rare excitement stirs your spirit and your body. Laistrygonians and Cyclops, wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them unless you bring them along inside your soul, unless your soul sets them up in front of you. Hope the voyage is a long one. May there be many a summer morning when, with what pleasure, what joy, you come into harbors seen for the first time; may you stop at Phoenician trading stations to buy fine things, mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony, sensual perfume of every kind— as many sensual perfumes as you can; and may you visit many Egyptian cities to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars. Keep Ithaka always in your mind. Arriving there is what you are destined for. But do not hurry the journey at all. Better if it lasts for years, so you are old by the time you reach the island, wealthy with all you have gained on the way, not expecting Ithaka to make you rich. Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey. Without her you would not have set out. She has nothing left to give you now. And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you. Wise as you will have become, so full of experience, you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

Translated by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard

(C.P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Edited by George Savidis. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, 1992)

Safe

La Coruna as the first destination port after leaving Falmouth proved very elusive as the skipper decided to push ahead another twelve hours to get around Cape Finisterre to arrive in Baiona.  The first mate spotted the vague shadow of land far off on the eastern horizon about 6pm.  About that same time the sea swelled despite a harmless "maritime" 13 knot wind.  Hour by hour the height of the waves increased as well as the wind.  The last recorded gust before all the meters stopped working in the pitch black of night was 53 knots- which is gale force 10.

Ignorance can be bliss, and there were times that night that I wish I had been ignorant to the severity of our situation. Knowing your life depends on the strength of every single line (rope) holding... under more than the maximum stress and load allowance... or if one single thing had gone wrong or broken, we would almost certainly not be here today to write this blog. I can only describe it is that it's like being on a roller coaster for twelve hours that never stops and only increases in speed and severity and you can't get off.

That experience forever burned several impressions into my mind - the power of the sea, the power of prayer, (the first mate said it was the first time he had prayed in forty years) and how preparation, planning and flexibility are absolute requirements to sail, never mind long passages at sea.   I can honestly say the horizon of my life has been truly put into perspective.

Last post until we get to La Corona

We arrived in Falmouth this morning.  It's a charming seaside town.  I only wish we could stay longer.  I think I could live here, I already picked out my house and boat :) Ok, back to voyage at hand.  

The original plan was to arrive in Falmouth and wait for at least a four day fair weather window to open before we crossed the Bay of Biscay which is approximately 500-hundred nautical miles.  We anticipated having to wait several days, but as luck would have it, an enormous high pressure has developed to the west and began moving in today. We plan to sail with the current early in the morning, this after pulling an all nighter last night, implementing our watch system. 

 

The Bay of Biscay is shallow, so while the tide is not strong, winds play a significant factor, so we will be sailing on a far west arc.  The flip side of this wonderful weather...no wind.  We don't have enough fuel to motor across the Bay of Biscay so we will have to sail, even if there is no wind.  The point is...in a perfect world we will arrive in La Coruna in four days...but having said that, nothing is perfect in the nautical world.  

Next post will be in La Coruna, Spain or somewhere in Portugal depending on where we land.  

Cheers, Mate! 

Bon Voyage to Armadek, Skipper and Crew

How sailing - at least according to one salty sailor - is like war

     This morning on the dock in Falmouth, Gary and I met Bob Burns.  Bob went around the world, single-handed, in his 36-ft. steel, junk-rigged schooner.  478 days at sea, logging 31,700 miles.  

     We did some small talk about the forecast, the weather and how the high pressure was moving in over the Bay of Biscay. Then I asked him about his travels. He said, "sailing is like war."  Of course I followed up and asked him what he meant.  He said, "well ten percent is pleasure, 75-percent is boredom, and fifteen percent is sheer terror."

Hunter at the Helm, happy to be at sea