Imagine no ambiguity. It is not hard to do,
nothing to blur or befuddle and no collisions too;
imagine all the people sharing the same rule.
Now where was I? That’s right: Sea Guide
was sailing along placidly in a feeble breeze,
under popcorn clouds. There was not much
else to do but tweak the course every so often
and avoid other vessels and pods of dolphin
herding fish.
I made a mental check of which tack we were
on. Good, we were on starboard tack, with the
wind blowing onto the starboard side of our boat
and the boom out the port side. In theory, this
meant the yacht closing in on our left should
give way to us. Except that Happy Days was also
on starboard tack.
As we were upwind, to windward, of them,
Happy Days had the right of way because
they were sailing to leeward of us. I drew two
conclusions from this. First and foremost, Happy
Days is a cracking name for a boat and, secondly,
had the wind shifted and f licked our boom over
to the other side, we would have to give way to
our right and, if their boom also f licked over to
port tack but they could not determine which
tack we were on, then they would have to take
give-way action.
Except that they might notice that we had
our motor on. In theory, the law of the sea states
that power gives way to sail. In practice, might is
right and steel is stronger than wood. Plus, bear
in mind that not everyone knows or adheres to
the rules of the road. Buoy-oh-buoy is there any
red port left in that bottle?
Anyway, I altered course to starboard and
went around their stern. The briefest thought of
‘The Fonz’, masquerading under the dodger as
unwilling worker, f lashed across my mind but
was gone before I could really enjoy it.
Up ahead, the wide empty channel eased my
mind with the prospect of freedom, a towering
land of tree ferns and sparsely populated bays.
You could go anywhere under all this untroubled
air and dazzling sunlight.
In spite of the tranquillity, I felt myself quiver.
As we sailed along, I thought back to the stories
Malc would tell from his past, about serving on
a naval frigate and his years of cruising. Modern
ships, he said, are so bristling with automated
systems that there are only two on the bridge: an
officer and a dog. Malc reckoned that the job of
the officer is to feed the dog and the dog’s job is
to bite the officer if he touches anything.
He claimed that on his many solo ocean
crossings, he never saw any ships. Admittedly,
that is because he did not keep watch. He figured
that if he was going to go down, it would have
been fighting in some foreign war and, anyways,
at least he would go out doing something he loved.
Sometimes he wondered how he lived so long.
It is hard keeping a lookout day and night, but
it is also not that hard. It’s an enforced idleness.
A chance to stay awake, observe nature and
contemplate the sky; on a wide screen, with no
ad breaks. Perfect. When do you ever do that in
the city?
How wonderful at my age to discover a
whole new person, by that I mean myself.69
http://www.mysailing.com.auServings: how hungry are you?- very fresh firm snapper sliced
into 1cm cubes - pinch of salt
- freshly squeezed lemon juice
- coconut cream: I use
powdered from the packet,
available from Asian grocery
stores - a selection of thinly sliced
veggies, along the lines
of tomato, red onion and/
or spring onion, capsicum,
cucumber, carrot, mint and/or
coriander - throw in a chilli too, if chilli is
your thing. - Tarakihi, tuna, gurnard,
trevally and kingfish work
well for this recipe too, as
long as it is very fresh.- Don’t be over concerned
about the selection of
veggies, use whatever’s fresh
in the larder. I’ve eaten more
variations of this recipe than
I’ve had cold dinners.
- Put the fish in a serving bowl.
Sprinkle with salt and soak
in lemon juice until the flesh
turns white and the juice has
‘cooked’ the fish. - Tip out some of the juice.
- Add the remaining
ingredients, stir carefully. - Eat.
RAW FISH SALAD