Is this unadventurous or is it sage advice?
I’m not talking about throwing yourself off the Derwent dam wall (which is where this is) – that surely makes a lot of sense, I mean “shattered spine” sums it up, yes – but more metaphorically.
I’m not much of a risk taker, personally, but I equally admire and pity those who are. I guess that some of them might look at me in the same way. But probably it’s more pity, right?
Look at cars. Loads and loads of different types, but generally all the same design.
A box on four wheels with an engine.
Now look at yachts. Loads and loads of different types, and all completely different. One hull, two hulls, three hulls. One mast, two masts, three masts. This sail, that rig, the other jib. And yes, I’ve begun to reference the technical language that goes with it, so you’re already playing catch-up.
(As an aside – which is your preferred keel type?)
(Fin, Wing, Bilge? Daggerboard or centreboard?)
(Meh – I digress. Your call. It’s all good.)
I was in contact with The 6000 miles… Maritime Correspondent last night, asking him to assist with deducing the type of sailing vessel depicted in a photograph wot I had saw on Facebook. Was it, perchance, a sloop? I thought that it might be – via the means of a process of elimination:
I was pretty sure that it wasn’t a fractional rig sloop (although now maybe it was – see UPDATE below) or a ketch, a schooner, a yawl, a cutter or a cat (no whiskers, see?). Alternatively, it could have been a barque, (always worse than their bite), a barquentine (always worse than their bitentine), a brig or a brigantine, but it wasn’t. Clearly.
Neither was it a true sloop though, because – as was pointed out by The Maritime Correspondent, it was gaff-rigged. And then, it turned out that actually, it didn’t fit into any given category anyway and was a completely new type of yacht. Great.
Kinda sloopy , but… not. Gaff-rigged, rather than the more traditional Bermuda or Marconi rig, see?
So, you can have variations on any of the above themes and that makes them not what you thought they were, then? Great.
And this is proven on the “types of sailboat” page which I got some of my “types of sailboat” information from, because even the expert author there was forced to issue a clarification:
In this article I’ve said that ketches, yawls and schooners with two headsails can be called cutter rigged. This is a commonly used description but strictly speaking, there’s only one rig that can accurately be called a cutter – and that’s a single-masted sailboat with two headsails.
Damn straight. I spotted that as soon as I logged on. Amateur.
Look, I like to know about things. I pride myself on my general knowledge. But yachts? Meh – you can keep them. Unnecessarily complicated. I’m happy to stick to my limited knowledge of woody or fibreglassy bit = hull, poley bit = mast, clothy bit = sail.
If you know more: fair play, well done. It’s not for me.
UPDATE: Oh Christ… incoming:
If you work it back, it appears that the Bermuda Sloop was originally a Gaff-Rig:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bermuda_sloop
So it could be argued that a gaff-rig is a type of sloop.
Our Yacht is a fractional rig sloop? Sloop is a bit of a generic term for any normal yacht, it appears…
*head explodes*
Sleeping. I’m not sleeping.
That could actually be the root cause of all the other things I’m not doing. Although maybe there are causes for that as well – it’s been hot and we have a beagle (so heat and stress) – so lack of sleep might not be the root cause in the truest sense of the phrase.
But when you’re not sleeping well, a lot of other stuff starts to slip as well.
For example: I can’t remember the last time I picked up my camera. And that’s disappointing. I didn’t get a lot of photography done over the summer break, but I thought I’d make some plans in the New Year. The New Year isn’t very New anymore, and I actually haven’t done anything.
And then the drone. The drone is slightly more problematic, in that the infernal South Easter is being regularly infernal once again.
Time enough, sure, but there it sits there on my desk, taunting me. I look at the Mavic Facebook groups and I look at the often incredible videography and photography on there and I want to do it. Even though I’m still learning how to fly, I am getting to that point now where I can begin to concentrate on the more creative side. I need to have that ready for our next visit to Agulhas, but I need some calm weather to get in a bit more practice. It’s not happening.
And the sleep comes into that again because instead of using the light early morning winds this weekend, I decided to try and get another hour or two in bed, and missed out. Idiot. Tired idiot, but idiot, nevertheless.
Football. That’s also an issue. Anything from the UK is on late at night. 10pm kick offs mean that you’re going to be watching til (almost) midnight. And then you’re up at Foolish o’clock because the kids need to get to school. Bring on BST (still 2 months away).
At the moment, I’m not quite sure how to break this cycle of no sleep and constant tiredness and lethargy and getting nothing done.
Just know that I am aware of it, and I’m working on it.
Starting tomorrow.
It’s been a while since I’ve done a quota photo, but work is really busy* and this evening is full, so here’s one I made earlier.
Crepuscular rays near Cape Agulhas last month. Reminding me of something out of Star Trek – hence the title.
* diplomatic terminology.
Last week’s plea from the City of Cape Town to religious leaders to pray for rain already appears to be paying damp dividends. A quick check on my Weatherbomb widget suggests that we’re in for some precipitation tomorrow, just a few (or a couple) of days after religious gatherings across the region:
Just look at that purple mound over Tues. Wetness! Moisture! But – couldn’t we do a bit better? Because a cross check with Windguru indicates that Cape Town should expect a grand total of [big drum roll]…
1.4mm of rain tomorrow!
[sad trombone]
Of course, there will be local variations. Newlands will get more than 1.4mm, Durbanville probably won’t get any rain whatsoever. But overall, it’s simply not good enough, religious leaders. Please pray harder.
But then, beagle-eyed readers will be already pointing to next week’s forecast: a week away to next Sunday into Monday – look at the veritable mountain of violet. JUST LOOK AT IT!
It’s early days, but it’s still rain! However, looking at Windguru, it seems that we can expect a monstrous 4.2mm of precipitation on that occasion.
Every little helps, I know. But… but really?
I hope I’m not alone in my simultaneous gratitude and chastisement of our local religious leaders. Right now, I’m happy that we’re going to have a cooler, damper day tomorrow. And I’m delighted that there are seven hours of next week which look even more moist.
But can we organise more volume and greater frequency, please? Up the ante a little? Because 5.6mm over 7 days isn’t going make a jot of difference in reality. Please – no floods or anything (I don’t have an ark), just a few days (not forty) of decent, wetting rain so that the plants don’t all die off completely and so that we can still have a bath come April?
Get it together, guys. Honestly.