Logbook Tres Hombres (April 17, 2012)
The kraken wakes by Charlie, trainee a/b
In the middle of our third week since leaving sight of land, we are now drifting about 40 miles west of the Azores.... The wind has taken itself off and we sit drifting upon the becalmed ocean... The boat swivels on it's axis, and it feels like the only thing that can possibly be moving us is the slender ocean current that unrolls its ribbons across the face of the sea and our turning of the ship's wheel back and forth as we try to keep ourselves on course.... For we are still moving (at this very moment at 0.3 of a knot) and moving in the direction we want to go, north towards the edge of the great ring of high pressure above us, to meet the winds which circle its periphery...
Approaching land this way is very strange... the sea has changed... It is like climbing into a giant's paddling pool in his deserted garden.... birds circle indifferently, dolphins swim around us incuriously, whales puff up and down in little trains...
The imminence of land affects everyone on board deeply... We are the spirits here. During the last watch, the first watch of the night Taeo the mate and Tobias and Anna, two of the crew, were talking about ghosts on boats without anyone sounding the least trace of incredulity, and just now, as I climbed on deck a few minutes ago for the third watch of the night into the calmest, serenest, starriest dawn i have ever seen, the previous watch were discussing krakens and dragons quite seriously, quite calmly...
More prosaically, during the hours of daylight, the calm is suddenly broken by someone saying quite out of the blue: "A bottle of beer, and a plate of Portuguese dried ham..!" or just, "A shower!"... Or you hear someone leaning forward and asking, "Was there anything but ice in that glass of rum you were talking about?" ...but really we have hardly been at sea for any time at all... A matter of a score of days only, but, and it is quite obviously and quite marvelously true, days which, because of the lack of an engine, have been given a very powerful intensity.
For myself I have been very happy and I dream on no plates of ham, or glasses of beer... or showers or soap or barbers!... But I do look forward to being reunited with my family and telling them some of the things I have seen, the most marvelous of all being the way so many moments so distinct and peculiar can fuse into the semblance of an irretrievable dream...
Charlie,
Trainee
Elise Kossen
Trainee a/b
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Fairtransport bv - Willemsoord 73, 1781 AS Den Helder - Tel.: 0223 683 516
Copyright by: AZH
The sailing vessel and cargo ship
Brigantine Tres Hombres
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