So yesterday I stood outside the office...

[Cuban]

... and watched these guys sail into the harbour. Single file... no wind... flat water... long line. Not something you see every day. [emoji106]

(not my pics)













All together there were eleven tall ships sailed into the harbour, as part of the 'Festival of Sail' this year. Here's a link to info on the ships...

http://saintjohnfestivalofsail.com/#tallships

And of course it's raining today.

[MattSunn]

So cool! Love those ships. [emoji106]

[JFL Live]

That's way cool! [emoji106]

When I look out the window at work... I see corn.

[jeffcoslacker]

That's way cool! [emoji106]

When I look out the window at work... I see corn.

you should see money

[jeffcoslacker]

Sailing ships always make me think about how much slower and tough life could be back in the day...I recently read a story about a man and his wife, they lived in South America as some kind of minor nobility, but when his father died back in France he needed to travel there to claim his inheritance, back then I guess legally you had two years to accomplish this.

Through an amazing sequence of events and mis-cues, their attempts to re-unite took something like 12 years, and ended with her stumbling out of the jungle sick and alone after being robbed and having her servants abandon her, then wandering the jungle for months. He sent a ship with a search party that stayed tied up on the coast for months while the crew tried to find her, imagine what that cost? In the end they only had a short time together, as people didn't live very long then either.

Horrible combo...short life and long, dangerous voyages. I suppose that's why people liked to do such bold, unheard-of things back then...you probably only get one shot at it, and then you're too old or too beat up from the effort to do anything again. Some did, and they are ones who are considered amazing historical figures.

And for some reason it also makes me think about the word "doldrums" which many people use for being in a state of disinterest or depression but have no idea what it actually means...it was a nautical term for the meteorological area of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans where equatorial heating causes air masses to either be abnormally active, or sometimes virtually absent of activity, depending on the season and other factors.

Being caught "in the doldrums" could be a nightmare for a sailing vessel...winds could go completely dead-calm and temps rise for days or even weeks...during which the vessel was incapable of moving at all. Imagine being trapped at sea, with blistering sun and heat and humidity with no air movement while you watch your stores of fresh water slowly deplete and your crew gets more agitated by the day...and there is NOTHING you can do about it.

Yeah, we got it pretty good now. Hop a plane in Brazil, be in France the next day. Those people would not believe it.

[JFL Live]

you should see money

But it's not my money...

[Cuban]

That's way cool! [emoji106]

When I look out the window at work... I see corn.

[emoji2]


@Jeffco... I always thought the doldrums was no wind. Dead air...

[jeffcoslacker]

That's way cool! [emoji106]

When I look out the window at work... I see corn.

[emoji2]

@Jeffco... I always thought the doldrums was no wind. Dead air...

It can be.

[Herb]

When i was in 8th grade we read this poem in english class, I memorized this part of it.

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,
'Twas sad as sad could be;
And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea!

All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

[Forge]

No doubt, men were men back then.