Evanston: in the moment
Evanston: in the moment
I only recently became aware of an attempt by Matt Rutherford to sail around the Americas counterclockwise non-stop in a Vega 27. Starting from Annapolis this past summer, he has completed the Northwest Passage from east to west--far from the feat it once was--and has made his way down the Pacific to the Southern Hemisphere where he is presently pounding into the Southeast Trades. Thanks to Jim for bringing this to my attention.
The first post of Matt Rutherford’s I read was the one headed ‘Equator’ dated November 13. I was particularly struck by his comments that his sat phone email has died, that he can still send email though his Predict Wind satellite communicator--whatever that is--and that he regrets that he can no longer see comments posted on his site because they made him feel less lonely.
In the book he wrote about his one-stop solo circumnavigation in GYPSY MOTH IV, Francis Chichester repeatedly complained about having to break his solitude to send radio messages back to the newspaper that gave him the boat. I remember having no sympathy with him for having to make his radio transmissions: you take the boat, you pay the price. Sponsors are bosses. But I do understand his desire not to have the world beyond his boat and the sea intrude on the voyage.
I enjoy communicating with people when I’m on land or in port. Every word I’ve ever written is an attempt at communication. But when I sail away, I enter the monastery of the sea, where I am not lonely and don’t want to talk to anyone who is not on the boat.
One of my primary reasons for going to sea is to disconnect from the cacophony and ugly clutter of modern society and to purify life into simple elements of beauty.
I have enjoyed following the cruises of others, such as Steve Earley, on their SPOT position maps; and I have considered my responsibility to Carol. Together they are causing me to think about getting a SPOT myself. Turning on such a device while sailing on the Great Lakes would not be an intolerable intrusion; nor would doing so for a half hour a day at noon on an ocean voyage. At least I don’t think it would.
There are, however, two problems. The first is that failure to receive expected position signals from any device is most likely to be due to failure of the device itself. I flatter myself that with my reputation for survival, no one would count me dead for months after a cessation of signals. And second, while SPOT coverage is good in the Northern Hemisphere, it isn’t in the Southern, where I do most of my sailing.
Whether I get a SPOT isn’t important. They aren’t expensive, so I may buy one as an experiment. What is important is living in the moment of a voyage and not wanting or needing to reach out for something that is not there, a society you have chosen to leave behind.
Everything that can’t be quantified is opinion, and I want to stress that this post only reflects my personal preferences. I don’t mean to be hard on Matt Rutherford, whose voyage I will continue to follow. I don’t claim or believe that my way is the only way or even necessarily the best way. Sailing and life are seldom controlled experiments.
Monday, November 28, 2011