Ahoy My Friends

Monday, October 13th, 2008

This is my first entry to the log of my journey aboard the barque Picton Castle.

My trip starts officially on November 12, 2008 in Mallorca Spain and will go until May 23, 2009 when we
arrive in Lunenberg N.S.

So why start posting nearly a month in advance?
Three reasons really:

1) So there is something for good people like you to read before I go.

2) To chronicle some of the stuff I have to do and worries I have to deal with.

3) So I can try to explain, to you and to myself, just why I want to leave my loving wife and daughter, my
job, my day to day life with all its security and solidity, for 6 months on the wet moving deck of a sailing
ship.

The following quote from Samuel Johnson sums up how many people see such a trip:

“No man will go to sea who can contrive to have himself put in jail, for going to sea is being
in jail with the added chance of being drowned.”

Lovely.

So why go?

I have always had a fascination with ships. Any ships, from Roman galleys to Napoleonic-era frigates to
early ironclads, WWI battleships, Cape Horn grain racers and B.C. stern wheelers.

Over the last few years I’ve been fascinated with the complexities and beauty of classic sailing ships.  All
those miles of rigging and acres of canvas moving tons of cargo across the seas of the world, by the power of the winds alone, under the control of surprisingly small groups of skilled men.

For me to be able to “learn the ropes” and actually make such a beautiful thing as a ship work, to cross a
great ocean and experience the life of a seaman in the Age of Sail, is a dream come true.

But other than dreams why…

Perhaps it is only to be able to put flesh on the bones of all the stories and accounts I have read.

Perhaps it is to test my will, and what passes for brawn, against nature in all her awesome power.

Perhaps it is simply to escape my “normal” life, to get outside my head and “off the net.” To be in a place
where I don’t “know the ropes”, where I have to challenge myself. To meet new people, see new places,
and learn new skills.

Perhaps all of the above or none of the above at all.

I’m not sure I really know just yet.

I intend to find out, however, and by the time I get back, perhaps I will be able to say here why I went.

Or not

I do know that John Masefield said it pretty well:

Sea-Fever
I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sails shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face and a grey dawn breaking.
I must down to the seas again,for the call of the running tide,
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea gulls crying,
I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow rover,
And a quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

 Thanks for reading.
KJ