Chania, Crete 2005
For the origin of this series – here
'Blue Mistress'
For love of a boat – in Messinia, Greece
Enjoying the wait
The trapeze artist said: “Living is walking the wire. Everything else is waiting.”
The finest Sunday of the summer. The sun shone, the wind blew. A brilliant day for a sail.
But there was something wrong with the car. . . and, as I have damaged my thumb, sailing was out.
So we took the train to Exeter . . .
Teignmouth – Dawlish – Dawlish Warren – Starcross – Exeter St Thomas.
This is the coast-line – to be more exact, Isambard Kingdom Brunel‘s line, the line of his Atmospheric Railway.
The sea sparkled the way it does here when the wind blows from the west and stirs the calm surface to catch the morning sun.
A mile or so off the beach, a ketch, in full sail, was reaching across the bay. Each time we emerged from one of short tunnels through the cliffs, she had stretched away further south towards Hope’s Nose and Berry Head.
We stopped in Dawlish, then Dawlish Warren, (disembarking families carrying beach clothes and picnics), before we turned inland along the Exe estuary.
The tide was high and the Folkboat (I always notice her) was on her mooring. I had thought of keeping Blue Mistress here before settling on Plymouth.
It seemed that people were taking to the water wherever we looked.
In Exeter, they were enjoying the river, including the short crossing on Butts Ferry.
The ferry is left over from the wonderful and much lamented Exeter Maritime Museum.
The warehouse that housed the museum is still there. I have always thought, whimsically perhaps, of the boats moored along the canal as ganging up in sympathy for the small gem of a museum that has been lost forever.
We had come to Exeter to visit our son and spent the day doing ordinary things – walking and talking, greeting and eating, before returning to the train.
Along the Exe, the tide was now very low and the Folkboat closer to the shore – well, close to the bird flocked mud flats.
And in Teignmouth, in the late afternoon, there was gig racing. On shore, rowers were hurrying to their boats, busying themselves before the start of their race.
Offshore they were heaving on their oars, some boats flying, some labouring, all working to a common cause.
Today the rowers had been out ‘walking the wire’, while we were ashore ‘waiting’ and doing ordinary things – walking and talking, greeting and eating . . .
and we were all having a thoroughly enjoyable time.
For love of a boat – in Northumberland, England
Seahouses, Northumberland, UK 2004
AA commented to my last post:
“I have often heard it be mentioned for aircraft “If it looks good it will fly good”.
I guess it applies to all things, boats included 🙂
Beauty, efficiency, utility, it all lies with the right proportions, maybe just the right mix of good and bad design (as nothing is perfect).”
I definitely agree with this. There is also the thought that “form follows function”.
When they reached the final design for the coble, they must have explored a whole seried of boat forms before they decided that this was the one that ideally suited the coast on which it was to be launched.
In the image above, there is the opportunity to compare the coble with the more recently designed Drascombe lugger – conceived and built in the south west of England.
This should also please Mr Boating who commented: “Looks good but I think you can add more photos from other sides, can you?”
Sometimes you take several images, sometimes you don’t.
For love of a boat – in Pelion, Greece
Helpful clips
I posted a short clip of Blue Mistress some months ago (the same clip I keep on my desktop at work!), but hadn’t thought much more about the medium – I have always preferred still images.
I went for a solo sail out of Plymouth one cloudy and suspiciously dark afternoon – (it blew up and rained after I came ashore).
There was a light breeze while I was out and the idea was to work with the autohelm, trying various sail trims, wind directions and so on. It was fun and I got several simple jobs done at the same time.
I though I’d try out the movie mode on the camera again. And became irritated by the set of the foresail with its flapping foot – we sometimed accept things for ourselves that we wouldn’t accept if we thought other people were going to see them. Sad but true.
It’s the sheet position of course, but getting the balance on an older sail is difficult when there has been some stretching. This is the foresail I would normally use in a much stronger wind. The genoa would have come into its own for the wind strength that afternoon, but we were in trials – not trying to break records.
So, a different tack, shifting the sheet one notch, sailing slightly further off the wind and it looks better. But I would like to sail closer to the wind with this sail, so I will need to think it through further.
In the meantime, I have these reminders.
For love of a boat – on Cap Corse, Corsica
The Cloud Appreciation Society
We were charmed to look up at the mountains across the water from Korcula to see this cloud formation.
I had never seen a cloud like this and wondered if it was a local phenomenon or whether we were just unobservant.
It remained over the peak for a long while and slowly developed.
I don’t think it is related, but that night we had a thunderstorm and a half. The lightning was right overhead and the thunder claps deeply thunderous. At one point, our window blew open.
Anyway, I have looked up the type of cloud (Google) and find it is a Wave cloud. This particular form is called Lenticular:
“Another way that wave clouds can form is where air flows over a mountain or hill. If a cloud forms on this wave, it is called “lenticular” (which means “lens-shaped”) cloud, which has a very smooth, symmetric appearance”
In my search, I came across The Cloud Appreciation Society. Now, I’m ashamed to say I laughed. What! There are people who watch out for clouds and take pictures of them!!
And then I paused – Oh . . . . . . .
Well, here are two more untouched images – (taken two days later on the ferry from Korcula to the mainland)
– and long live The Cloud Appreciation Society.
The Art of the Charter
We had been looking down on the harbour of Cavtat for some time, before we noticed the obvious – “That mast is very tall.”
We are in super-yacht territory, and this is ‘Only Now’ (and here) – loa: 104.10 ft, lwl: 90.78 ft, beam: 21.82 ft.
Yours to charter – for a fee, complete with crew.
We had been admiring the fleets of charter boats sailing between the islands, especially the 40 – 50 ft boats.
Yachts like ‘Only Now’ raise the game to a different plane altogether.
We didn’t see her leave harbour, but we did watch her out at sea, tacking among the islands – stunning.
(Oh – and she’s four times the length of Blue Mistress!)
For love of a boat – on the Dalmation Coast, Croatia
The problem is this: here is a fine-looking, well-built, working boat sitting on a beach.
“
It’s not in its original condition. The hot sun shines on it every day, the seams have opened, a piece of the forefoot has come away. Whether this is repairable or not is irrelevant, this boat is no longer required for its original purpose and it will finish its life as a theatrical prop on a beautiful beach in Croatia.
So, do we care? After all, there are plenty of other boats in the world. What’s special about this one?
Well, somebody had the idea to build it. Perhaps he designed it – or perhaps he took the lines off another boat- (I say ‘he’ because it’s less likely in this country to be ‘she’ – but not impossible). Somebody sawed the timbers and found the rest of the materials required, then they built it. Maybe he sold it or maybe he used it himself to fish from, and certainly he would have put in the time to maintain it.
You see, this boat has gathered a history around it. It is the story of a life lived on the water. We may never know the details of that story, but it deserves some respect and, at the very least, it can be preserved in a picture.
I hope to post pictures of similar boats (most of them in a better state than this one) regularly.
Beyond Steeple Point 