ERIC FORSYTH: An Inexplicable Attraction

There are few things I like better at the end of the day then to climb into my bunk on BIANKA with a good read. It just puts a nice finish to the day spent on board. The book I just started and am enjoying very much is An Inexplicable Attraction: My Fifty Years of Ocean Sailing by Eric Forsyth. Long before You Tube bought us the cruising video sailing stars like S/V Delos, La Vagabounde, Drake Paragon etc... There was Eric Forsyth sailing around the world on his Westsail 42. Which he purchased as a bare hull had it shipped across the country and spent several years turning it into the boat that would take him on voyages across oceans and into the Arctic and even through the Northwest Passage. Eric finds the voyage not the destination the fun part of his cruises. Though from what I have read so far he provides interesting tidbits of history in some of his stops too. 

I was happy to attend the book's release party since he lives not far away from me along with his boat FIONA's homeport. I purchased his book on KINDLE since BIANKA's bookshelves can no longer hold anymore books.  Unfortunately, the thing about buying books on Kindle is the author can not sign their manuscripts. But, I did the next best thing and had Forsyth hold my Kindle for a photo. 
At 83 years old Forsyth does not appear to be slowing down.  He is busy preparing for his next voyage. Perhaps not as challenging as some as his polar trips but, challenging enough for most sailors. Just a simple circumnavigation of the North Atlantic ocean. There was a map on the wall of the boat barn showing his planned route:

But, in reading his book often things don't go as planned. But, Forsyth and his crew are up to the challenges and that's what makes his book An Inexplicable Attraction: My Fifty Years of Ocean Sailing  such a good read. I'm enjoying it and recommend it.

A GOOD DAY FOR A VOYAGE

Thinking about Joshua Slocum today.

"I had resolved on a voyage around the world, and as the wind on the morning of April 24, 1895 was fair, at noon I weighed anchor set sail, and filled away from Boston, where the Spray had been moored snugly all winter. The twelve o'clock whistles were blowing just as the sloop shot ahead under full sail. A short board was made up the harbor on the port tack, then coming about she stood to seaward, with her boom well off to port, and swung past the ferries with lively heels. A photograp her on the outer pier of East Boston got a picture of her as she swept by, her flag at the peak throwing her folds clear. A thrilling pulse beat high in me. My step was light on deck in the crisp air. I felt there could be no turning back, and that I was engaging in an adventure the meaning of which I thoroughly understood."

Since BIANKA is still currently on land and blocked by other boats in the boatyard the next best thing might be to start reading SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD again. The book was one of the first books I loaded onto my Kindle E-reader.  The book always seems to get my cruising juices flowing and today being the anniversary of Slocum's departure it seems like a good day as any . 

A WINTERS TALE: CASTAWAY IN THE COLD

I recently finished a book called Cast Away in the Cold An Old Man's Story of a Young Man's Adventures, as Related by Captain John Hardy, Mariner by I.I. Hayes and is available as free Kindle download
. 

It's a fictional tale but, still a good nautical read about survival in a harsh environment.  In the book a retired sea captain named John Hardy befriends some local children and tells them the story of how he first went to sea. He was raised on a farm and soon grew tired of the labor involved. So he ran away to New Bedford Massachusetts with the plan to get on a ship and go to sea:
“Up to this period of my life, I had never been ten miles from home, and had never seen a city, so of course everything was new to me. By this time, however, I had come to reflect seriously on my folly, and this, coupled with hunger and fatigue, so far banished curiosity from my mind that I was not in the least impressed by what I saw. In truth, I very heartily wished myself back on the farm; for if the labor there was not to my liking, it was at least not so hard as what I had performed these past two days, in walking along the dusty road,—and then I was, when on the farm, never without the means to satisfy my hunger.

“What I should have done at this critical stage, had not some one come to my assistance, I cannot imagine. I was afraid to ask any questions of the passers-by, for I did not really know what to ask them, or how to explain my situation; and, seeing that everybody was gaping at me with wonder and curiosity (and many of them were clearly laughing at my absurd appearance), I hurried on, not having the least idea of where I should go or what I should do.

“At length I saw a man with a very red face approaching on the opposite side of the street, and from his general appearance I guessed him to be a sailor; so, driven almost to desperation, I crossed over to him, looking, I am sure, the very picture of despair, and I thus accosted him: ‘If you please, sir, can you tell me where I can go and ship for a voyage?’

“‘A voyage!’ shouted he, in reply, ‘a voyage! A pretty looking fellow you for a voyage!’—which observation very much confused me. Then he asked me a great many questions, using a great many hard names, the meaning of which I did not at all understand, and the necessity for which I could not exactly see. I noticed that he called me ‘landlubber’ very frequently, but I had no idea whether he meant to compliment or abuse me, though it seemed more likely to me that it was the latter. After a while, however, he seemed to have grown tired of talking, or had exhausted all his strange words, for he turned short round and bade me follow him, which I did, with very much the feelings a culprit must have when he is going to prison".

Of course he gets on a ship and things get even worse as he experiences his first bout of sea sickness:

“In the first place, you see, they gave me such wretched food to eat, all out of a rusty old tin plate, and I was all the time so sick from the motion of the vessel as we went tossing up and down on the rough sea, and from the tobacco-smoke of the forecastle, and all the other bad smells, that I could hardly eat a mouthful, so that I was half ready to die of starvation; and, as if this was not misery enough, the sailors were all the time, when in the forecastle, quarrelling like so many wild beasts in a cage; and as two of them had pistols, and all of them had knives, I was every minute in dread lest they should take it into their heads to murder each other, and kill me by mistake. So, I can tell you, being a young sailor-boy isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.”

“O, wasn’t it dreadful!” said Alice, “to be sick all the time, and nobody there to take care of you.”

“Well, I wasn’t so sick, maybe, after all,” answered the Captain, smiling,—“only sea-sick, you know; and then, for the credit of the ship, I’ll say that, if you had nice plum-pudding every day for dinner, you would think it horrid stuff if you were sea-sick.”

“But don’t people die when they are sea-sick?” inquired Alice.

“Not often, child,” answered the Captain, playfully; “but they feel all the time as if they were going to, and when they don’t feel that way, they feel as if they’d like to.

He eventually gets his sea legs and actually starts to become familiar with the ways of the ship he is on as it sails into the Arctic waters to hunt for whales and seals.  But, disaster soon strikes and he finds himself alone stranded in the Arctic:

“We were but a moment getting into the boats. The boat which I was in had something the start of the other two. Just as we were pulling away, the master of the ship came on deck, and ordered us to do what, had the red-faced mate done an hour before, would have made it impossible that this danger should have come upon us. ‘Carry your line out to the fast ice,’ was the order we received from the master; and every one of us, realizing the great danger, pulled as hard as he could. The ‘fast ice’ was dimly in sight when we started, for we had drifted while at breakfast towards it, as well as towards the berg. Only a few minutes were needed to reach it. We jumped out and dug a hole, and planted the ice-anchor. The ship was out of sight, buried in the fog. A faint voice came from the ship. It was, ‘Hurry up! we have struck.’ They evidently could not see us. The line was fastened to the anchor in an instant, and the second mate shouted, ‘Haul in! haul in!’ There was no answer but ‘Hurry up! we have struck.’ ‘Haul in! haul in!’ shouted the second mate, but still there was no answer. ‘They can’t hear nor see,’ said he, hurriedly; and then, turning to me, said, ‘Hardy, you watch the anchor that it don’t give way. Boys, jump in the boat, and we’ll go nearer the ship so they can hear.’ The boat was gone quickly into the fog, and I was then alone on the ice by the anchor,—how much and truly alone you shall hear. 

So begins Captain Hardy's story of Arctic survival.  As I read the book and was impressed by it's detail of how people stranded in the harsh Arctic environment could survive for an extended period of time. It was then I found it's author Issac I. Hayes had been part of the Second Grinnell Expedition to search for John Franklin.  An expedition which became a matter of survival as the expedition's ship Advance became stuck in ice. Three members of the crew died and the others including Hayes embarked on an epic journey of Arctic survival. No wonder this book has such detail how to survive in Arctic conditions. Hayes is also the author of other non fiction books about his Arctic adventures:
An Arctic Boat Journey: In the Autumn of 1854

and
The Land of Desolation, being a personal narrative of adventures in Greenland. With illustrations

GOOD TO KNOW: KINDLE AND GOPRO CAMERA CHARGING TIP

I was out on a charter in the Leeward Islands recently and bought along my new GoPro Hero camera. I also bought along a 12 volt USB adapter and the GoPro charger cable to charge it. But, when I got on board I found that the boat did not have any 12 volt cigarette sockets on board that were wired.  But I did have a 120 volt outlet in my cabin hooked up to the  boats inverter. So I did what any good sailor would do and looked around for something that I could adapt to charge the GoPro camera. I found just what I needed with my Kindle e-reader charging cable:

The Kindle comes with a small 120 volt to USB adapter plug with a removable cable. So I was able to plug the GoPro Hero camera cable into the Kindle adapter and charge via the boats 120 volt inverter. It's a good thing to know if you need to charge the GoPro camera and just have a 120 volt Kindle charger. It will serve a dual purpose charging both your Kindle and GoPro camera.
Speaking of the GoPro cameras nothing gets me looking forward to summer and the up coming sailing season than a video like this:

GIFTS FOR BOATERS: Amazon Kindle

Well tis the season! Members of my family have in years past gotten me gifts that they thought I might use on my boat. They were well intentioned and it is the thought that counts and all. But, the truth is some of those gifts never made it on board. So I thought I'd post a few ideas of some gifts for boaters over the next few weeks that I find useful and would make a great gift for those you know who are boaters or even yourself.

One of my favorites things on board BIANKA is to climb into my bunk and read before falling asleep. The trouble is I can only carry so many books on board. Indeed most of BIANKA's bookshelves are already filled with books relating to maintenance and navigation.

There is little room for more recreational reads. Last year my girlfriend gave me an Amazon KINDLE E-reader which I find is one of the most practical things for a cruising sailor who likes to read.

My KINDLE is the free 3G/WiFi model which I think is best suited for cruisers who anchor out a lot where you will often be away from WiFi hotspots. This model  allows one to buy and/or download books not only via WiFI when availible but, also via a 3G wireless network. Which often has a larger coverage area than units only access in WiFi locations.  AMAZON offers a number of KINDLE options at various prices and capabilities.

The wonderful thing about an E-reader like the Kindle is it allows one to have thousands of books available on board in one small convenient package that would sink some boats if they were in paper form. Another advantage is that best sellers are cheaper for Kindles than their hardcover and paperback versions. Even better there are thousands of books available for free downloads and in my "book" free is good! In fact the first book I downloaded on my KINDLE was available as a free download. It was SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD by Joshua Slocum. There are many others which I will mention here in the future. So if you are looking for a gift for those you know who spend a lot of time cruising on their boats. You might want to consider an E-reader like the KINDLE as a gift.  If you know they already have a KINDLE you might consider giving them an AMAZON GIFT CARD so they can download the books they want onto them.

But, the Kindle is not really just for the boat. My Kindle is small enough to fit in the pocket of  my Columbia fishing shirts and I can carry it anywhere I go off the boat. From the beach to the bus stop. Plus it is readable in the sun unlike other electronic backlit devices like Apple IPADs. So no matter where I go on deck or below I can still read it. It's a great gift not only for boaters but, really for anyone you know.

HEMINGWAY AND THE SEA

 

 “Age is my alarm clock,” the old man said. “Why do old men wake so early? Is it to have one longer day?”“I don’t know,” the boy said. “All I know is that young boys sleep late and hard.”

-OLD MAN AND THE SEA

 
 It was fifty years ago today that writer Ernest Hemingway known around Key West as Papa Hemingway took his own life in Ketchum Idaho.  A place far away from the sea and places like Key West where he wrote many of his novels. Novels like TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT . A novel that takes place in Key West during the depression. It was later made into a movie with Humphrey Bogart and Laureen Bacall. Mariners and the sea play an important role in some of his most famous writing. Like the OLD MAN AND THE SEA  published in 1952 and was the last novel published while he was alive. It was the tale of an old Cuban fisherman a little down on his luck having not caught a fish in over eighty plus days. He was viewed as such a "Jonah" that the parents of his young apprentice refused to let their son get on a boat with him. It too was made into a several movie versions staring Spencer Tracy and Anthony Quinn.
Another Hemingway novel that takes place on the water is ISLANDS IN THE STREAM was published almost ten years after his death.  This story takes place around the waters of Bimini in World War II. A movie was made from it with George C. Scott.  Hemingway certainly knew the sea having spent a lot of time on it fishing on his boat Pilar  which is still on display in Cuba. During WWII he also used it to patrol the waters around Cuba looking for German U boats and probably doing some fishing too no doubt. I wonder if he might not have taken his own life had he remained near the waters he enjoyed and spent so much time on and where he had been so productive in his writings. 

ON CAPT. MIKE'S KINDLE: SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD

When I first got my KINDLE I had to decide what book to first download into it. Since there are literally hundreds of thousands of books to choose from it could be a daunting decision. It could also be an expensive one too. Because even though books bought for e-readers like the KINDLE are cheaper than their printed editions they still represent a negative cash flow to ones wallet. Each one should be purchased with that in mind. But, in my case the decision was made easier because there are a large number of books in the public domain that can be downloaded free of charge and in my book (no pun intended) "free is good". So when I started searching for my first book to download it was a from the free public domain down load choices that I made my pick. It was the classic SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD by Joshua Slocum. It's the autobiographical account of the first man to sail around the world whose epic journey begins almost nonchalantly:

 "I had resolved on a voyage around the world, and as the wind on the morning of April 24, 1895 was fair, at noon I weighed anchor set sail, and filled away from Boston, where the Spray had been moored snugly all winter. The twelve o'clock whistles were blowing just as the sloop shot ahead under full sail. A short board was made up the harbor on the port tack, then coming about she stood to seaward, with her boom well off to port, and swung past the ferries with lively heels. A photographer on the outer pier of East Boston got a picture of her as she swept by, her flag at the peak throwing her folds clear. A thrilling pulse beat high in me. My step was light on deck in the crisp air. I felt there could be no turning back, and that I was engaging in an adventure the meaning of which I thoroughly understood."

What follows is a very interesting nautical read written by a sailor who felt more comfortable on the water than he did on land. A voyage made in the days before VHF radios, GPS and satellite EPIRBS. It is truly an account of someone sailing alone around the world. Even better: You can down load it for free for the KINDLE here. But, if you don't have a KINDLE it is still a book worth reading on paper too! I recommend it no matter what form you read it on. Even though I own and have read a paperback copy of the book. It is a book that I think most sailors will want to read more than once. I know I do.

ON CAPT MIKE'S KINDLE: MANY CARGOES

I first picked up a copy of MANY CARGOES by W.W. Jacobs while staying overnight at the Tintswalo at Waterfall hotel in Johannesburg South Africa in 2009. I very much enjoyed the few stories I was able to read before I had to return it to the Hotel's bookcase. The book was first published in 1896.  When I got my Kindle I found I was able to download MANY CARGOES (Annotated) for a very nominal fee. So I did. W.W. Jacobs father was a dock worker in the Wapping part of London. So it seems only natural that Jacobs writing would be influenced by the tales of  Captains and crew of the boats that docked there. This book is full of  such characters on the merchant boats that sailed the area over one hundred years ago. The stories should give any sailor a good chuckle or two in reading them. For example there is the tale of a Captain who fancies himself more of a doctor than Captain much to the dismay of the crew:

'He's half crazy on doctoring. We nearly had a mutiny aboard once owing to his wanting to hold a post-mortem on a man what fell from the mast-head Wanted to see what the poor feller died of.'" "I call it unwholesome,' ses the second mate very savage. 'He offered me a pill at breakfast the size of a small marble; quite put me off my feed, it did.'

In another tale called IN MID ATLANTIC a Captain has a premonition: 

"We was about ten days out, an' still slipping along in this spanking way, when all of a sudden things changed. I,was at the wheel with the second mate one night, when the skipper, whose name was Brown, came up from below in a uneasy sort o' fashion, and stood looking at us for some time without speaking. Then at last he sort o' makes up his mind, and ses he—"'Mr. McMillan, I've just had a most remarkable experience, an' I don't know what to do about it.'
'"Yes, sir?' ses Mr. McMillan.
"' Three times I 've been woke up this night by something shouting in my ear, "Steer nor'-nor'-west!"' ses the cap'n very solemnly, '" Steer nor'-nor'-west!" that's all it says. The first time I thought it was somebody got into my cabin skylarking, and I laid for 'em with a stick, but 1 've heard it three times, an' there's nothing there.'
"' It's a supernatural warning,' ses the second mate, who had a great uncle once who had the second sight, and was the most unpopular man of his family, because he always knew what to expect, and laid his plans according.
"' That's what I think,' ses the cap'n. 'There's some poor shipwrecked fellow creatures in distress.'

Well, the Captain does eventually steer the boat nor'-nor'-west against the heated objections of the First Mate. The ship does come upon a sailor in "distress" but, not because of the reason you may think. You'll have to read the story to find out why. The books title MANY CARGOES certainly describes the twenty one short stories that were full of Captains, crew and landlubbers who find themselves in humorous situations on board various boats and ships.  Even though the book was published over one hundred years ago the stories still hold up today. Though Jacobs writing is very humorous in this collection he may be more famous for some of his more macabre stories like the Monkey's Paw. Still, I can recommend Many Cargoes as a book that would bring a lot of chuckles while reading it for most sailors.

A SAILOR'S KINDLE

My wonderful girlfriend gave me a KINDLE as a Christmas present. Although I guess this was partly done to also prevent me from downloading any more books on to the one she already owned. She really has no interest in being able to access a nautical dictionary on it. I've already mentioned how space on many sailboats is a precious resource and having to decide just which books to keep on board is sometimes a painful decision. Electronic book readers like the Kindle can help solve that dilemma. E-readers like the KINDLE can hold a thousands books (Amazon says up to 3,500). My girlfriend also has an Apple IPAD that she sometimes reads on too. But, in our experience the KINDLE seems better suited for reading on a boat. For one thing it is easier to read in sun than the back lit I Pad. The Kindle does not get washed out easily by strong sunlight making it perfect for afternoon reading in the cockpit or the beach. The KINDLE is also much lighter than the IPAD and less awkward to hold in bed. The battery charge on the KINDLE also lasts much longer than on an I PAD.  So if you are trying to decide between and I PAD or KINDLE for reading on board. I give the edge to the KINDLE.