Skill additions post 1

I have recently just completed my 4^th trip on a tall ship as a part of my job, one week a year for the past 4 years and have logged 725 nautical miles. The first was on a gaff rigged ketch called Provident,

 

and the last three were on a slightly larger gaff rigged ketch called leader. .

I have come to love Proverbs 30 vs 18-19 because of this experience:

¹⁸ There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:

¹⁹ The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.I have never yet seen a snake on a rock but have a friend who has and is obsessed with them, so I will take his word that they are wonderful to behold. I have experienced the other three and am in agreement with the writer of this proverb.

Sailing helps you to see the world from a different perspective; I am used to being on land and looking out at sea, when sailing it is reversed. Looking at land shows you that clouds do have an end and the sky looks so different from a seaward perspective. I suppose I have ended up with an obsession with weather because of this, to the extent that my PC opens up for the MET 5 day weather report for the town upon where I live and the first thing I do every day for 4 years is look at the weather forecast. At sea there are different birds than you see on land, I have come to love gannets and puffins because of this experience.






I have come to love cordage and rope because of sailing, it did take me a while to get my head around some of the rigging and how to tie a rolling hitch Another great thing about sailing is singing the shanties like Haul Away Joe as you haul on the ropes, teamwork in the hauling and singing forms teamwork better than any other thing I have experienced. Sailing has taken me to parts of my country that I may have taken much longer to see such as the islands of Tiree, Coll, Mull, Eigg and places like Lochs Sunnart and Loch Aline; overall what it has done for me is expand my observational awareness which is the lifeblood of tracking, I can honestly say that sailing has made me a better tracker as bizarre as that may sound. It’s all a jigsaw with interconnections and synthesis to be made in the maps of the mind.