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Because!.....to see all the different shrines people have put up in memory
of those that have passed as a result of the World Trade Center attack
...... "it brought tears to my eyes!"
It is one thing to hear and read about the casualty's, but to actually see
"for real" peoples faces .....their photo's.... right in front of you.....
on the fence ....with their baseball caps...uniform patches, teddy bears
from their children, signed T shirts, notes from loved ones, poems, cry's
of help and love, different flags from different nations all signed by
people who care, photo's of the attack and then of course there is the big
pit it's self....that...."which once was the World Trade Center".
What a hideous act!.......why?.....for what?...nobody gains anything....we
all loose!
After more than2000 years of humanity we should know better than to pick
up the sword and fight back.......
it never has worked ...it never will
....."an eye for a eye ..a tooth for a tooth"..... there are other
solutions available to us....it's our choice...it's what we choose to do!
Let's go back to Sailing.
The first day and night out is a rather uneventful sail to Nantucket with
plenty of fish boats at night, variable light winds and friendly sea's.
Getting around all the shoals near Nantucket proved to be quite a
challenge and did not go without touching the keel on some uncharted
shoals. Here unlike the tropics, eyeball navigating does not work very
well, because there is no colour difference to speak of between shallow
and deep water.....maybe the rippling on the water?
When I dropped anchor inside the harbour, the sounder read 6 feet, this
would gave me 2 feet to spare, it was lowis'h tide by the look at the
beach.... anyway.....no where else to anchor with more depth.
Nantucket was rather touristy and not much of it's whaling history was
very visible to me, so I only spent 1 night here.
At 5 am I woke up because the keel was bonking on the bottom.....not a
pleasant sound to wake to.
The tide was lower than the day before...[full moon]...so my 2 extra feet
just was not enough.
No worries mate!!!....we put mister Yanmar to work all 44 horses, a bunch
of wiggling and some swells from a passing ferry....got us of nicely. The
bottom is all sand.....so no worries there.
Whales
"ongelovelijk zoals die walvissen te keer gaan"
Oooooohps ......sorry....hey... this sometimes happens to me when I sail alone,
especially when I get excited, I start babbling in Dutch, my native
tongue. It is hard not to get totally excited when you are surrounded by an ocean
filled with feeding humpback whales. They are everywhere I look....for as far as the eye can see...surrounding
the boat...from horizon to horizon.....hundreds of them....never seen this
many whales at one time...... never in my life!
One day out of Nantucket, I am sailing straight through the whale's
feeding grounds.....there is a pot of at least 10 whales of to
starboard....only 5 boat lengths away.....they are very
wild...moaning...blowing...splashing...sticking their heads out of the
water....flippers in the air...as they dive tails are coming up and being
smacked hard onto the sea with a loud bang .....2 whales swim upside down
with there mouths wide open.....birds surrounding them every where
"looking for scraps"....more heads are poking straight out of the
water......looking around.....lot's of moaning and heavy breathing....only
a few feet away 2 whales swim straight for the boat ......"Whaaaaauw these
guys are huge"....."one little flick of those tails and we would be in
trouble"...."for sure"....but my brothers are "way too busy" feeding and
don't pay any attention at all to the lone sailboat passing through.
This water is freezing.....way too cold for a swim with the
whales....and.....in all honesty I am way too intimidated by their
activity to even consider a dip with my brothers.....I am just happy to
pass through the pot without any problems.
My heart is filled with joy to see that so many whales can be found in one
spot.....never seen this before!
"Good on you WORLD".....for stopping the whale hunt.....keep it up.....it
works!
Wednesday
June 26 ,,,,,,,,,,,,,Wind SW 08kn......... "Great broad reach" ....speed 5kn
Very cool
Yesterday I broke the ships rule ....no drinking at sea.
Just before sunset I drank a glass of red wine while smoking a fine
hand rolled mini cigar from Havana........Aaaagh is life good!
It was fun.....I enjoyed every second of it!.... (isn't that what rules
are made for ...to break them ...sometimes!)
This was after a long day with out no wind to speak off.
Wing to Wing with slating sails traveling, our speed was any where between
0.5 to 1.2 knots. But what a great day!.....what a great
day!....why?......The beauty of it all was the..... peacefulness....the
quiet....no sound to beeard...anywhere...the sea so flat, so
calm...hardly a ripple...shearwaters floating in the water following us
all day.....flying circles around the boat....dolphins...you could here
them coming from far away as they came to check out that strange shape in
the water.....the whales also...you could here them all day very
clearly....tails going up and down....it was a pure delight to experience
this "peacefulness" and nature up close....so unique...even the sun was
warm enough to run around naked in the afternoon....life on the ocean is
so magical....what a treat!....."thank you creator...thank you so much!"
We only traveled a few miles that day...some of the most "memorable miles
ever".
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Then there always is the
"after".....
No more than 2 boat length of visibility, this thick fog makes everything
soaking wet and the stiff breeze is making everything "freezing
cold"....that once lovely ocean now looks very uninviting, dull and Grey
...rather hostile...need to be fully dressed..... foul weather
gear.....hat...shoes....it just feels like winter has arrived in a few
hours....."welcome to Canadian waters."
At the best of times the fog is intimidating and difficult to deal with
but specially when sailing solo.
You cannot not see a vessel until it is right on top of you, that leaves
very little time to change course and sails if needed.
You also cannot stand on watch, day and night. The best I could do was to
have the radar detector on stand by....wake every 30 minutes or so, then
take a look around....tell yourself to leave your senses activated up
while you rest....start believing in a 6th sense....do a little
prayer....and sleep reeeeeeeely light.
It works.....but is rather stressful. Not something you would like to
repeat to often or do day after day.
........"booooooh"......"bhooooooh"........"bhoooooh".........."bhooooooh"............."bhoooooh"........."bhoooooh".......
I am waking out of a groggy sleep....."boooooh"......"I should be well
offshore so this must be a vessel"......."BBBoooooh"....BBBoooooh".
"it's getting louder".......quickly I crawl out of my damp bunk and get
dressed......."I was smart" my clothes are neatly laid out and ready to
slip into a hurry .....I stick my head out side .....all there is is thick
fog.....cannot see a thing...it's really thick.....BBBOOOOOOHHH.....oh no
....this is really close.....it's getting louder......"but I cannot see a
thing".....we are sailing at only a few knots..."let's start the motor
just in case"......"good old Yanmar always starts right
away"......specially when you need it.......I am looking.... aft because
that's where the sound seems to be coming from.....'Yes' there is
something.....there it is ...I can see a white light looming out of the
fog.....then another white light....." please....where is his red or green
running light" ...I need to know...... find out which way he is traveling
before I can decide what to do.....aaaagh there it is.....his port
light....now I know which way to turn.....full revs on the motor and the
tiller hard over to port......is this going to work????....thank God it
does not look like it is a freighter traveling at full speed [20knots]
.......it looks more like an ocean tug......good......"BBBOOOOOOH"... there he
blows again...it looks like he is also altering course.
Two ships passing in the night.....but way to close....I cannot believe
it...this big ocean with little or no traffic and we almost bump into each
other in this thick fog at 3 am at night.....makes you wonder whether
these guys check there radar once in a while.....the bridge on a
commercial vessel should always manned, especially when there is thick
fog....we give a good return on the radar screen specially after
installing the radar reflector.
Halifax
June 30 2002
Canada's birthday coming up and
Brazil wins the world cup "again"
"Do you know we are bringing a dog onboard...is that okay?"
"sure"....
I answer....what else do you say when there are 6 Canadian Custom officers
standing in and on your boat.....uniformed...wearing bullet proof
vests....side arms...briefcases...drug sensitive wipe down patches....serious faces....no smiles.
"Any drugs....any package some one gave you....any weapons...any
ammunition....what did you do in Brazil....Cuba....Africa...how long have
you been away from home....you are a landed immigrant.....what do you do
for a living?" etc etc.
I am asked to step outside while the dog goes to work.....sticks his nose
in a lot of places and he crawls all over every thing...."I hope he wiped his feet" I smartly remark....I cannot say I appreciate
the dog walking on every thing.....none of us ever do!
"do you have a pen?, here is your clearance number"......no forms to fill
out just a number.... "welcome back to
Canada" ....the officer says
Arrival days are always long and often tiring.
Land fall started 1 hour after the "near collision encounter at
night".....(no rest for the wicked).
The fog would never lift....not at all.
I plotted a whole bunch of way points into the GPS, ultimately leading us
straight into Halifax harbour.....I was rather skeptical about this. But
after I found the first buoy I started to feel a bit more confident about
entering the harbor in this relentlessly thick fog.
It actually worked very well and I was able to pick up all the buoys at
the harbour approaches.
Great technology the GPS...never relied on it as much as on this
approach....with out it I would still be out there bobbing around in the
fog waiting for it to clear.
Got a nice temporary slip down town Halifax (no charge yeeeah), near the
Bluenose 2,the maritime museum, Canada's birthday fireworks coming up
tomorrow and all the other amenities a sailor could ask for after a
challenging voyage!
Well.... this marks the end of the.... "around the world sailing
itinerary"
But "stay tuned" there are more adventures to come with a great new
itinerary
Wishing you as always
"Fair Winds"
Paul Mulder
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