Some 1000 miles from Cape Horn

27 November 2013

Update written by Leonard: “Already two days in a row we are storming forward tossed like a bottle in the sea. Dirty weather but who cares? There is always something going on aboard our ship. Imagine all the rituals we have: passing the date line, sending bottles with messages to unknown coasts, and hopefully within ten days or so rounding the Horn.
Today there is another celebration: Marino Carasso celebrates his 70th birthday! What’s in a name? Marino, the sailor! What a transformation. During his lifetime Marino has undergone a change from landlubber to old salt.
I happen to have known Marino as a curly black haired Merino bull almost fifty years ago, but now we are witnessing a lusty old jack-tar. The entertaining daily calendar by Peter van Straten seems to have known about Marino’s birthday because we see the picture of a angry looking little boy waving his fists and shouting: you only wait till I am a big boy and then!
Well Marino, you are there at last! Confucius has said to the seventy years old, after exhorting the 30, 40, 50 and 60 year olds to fulfil their filial obligations: do as your heart tells you, don’t you feel constrained anymore by conventions and unnecessary tasks.
We understand your first deed already shows the magnanimity of the proverbial generous grey-haired old man: at the occasion of your birthday you have offered ‘Oosterschelde’ (only 30 years your senior) a new laptop.
We the crewmembers also wish to give you a nice present in memory of this happy occasion: Richard Dana’s ‘Two years before the Mast’, a classic story about the Cape Horn navigation, first published in 1840. Even if you are a devoted E-book reader we hope you will treasure this nice hardcover edition of Harvard University Press.
A word of warning: don’t you think you can behave as you like on the ‘Oosterschelde’, just wait till you are home. Here you live under the captain Arian’s discipline. And if you don’t behave, just read Dana’s narrative and you will see what the punishment is!
Our ships freethinking philosopher Jacob Zwerver (again what is in a name) spoke yesterday about the microcosm of the ‘Oosterschelde’. Jacob is quite right. We write daily reports about our life on board as if it were the most important event in the world, without really being aware of what is happening in the world around us. Does it actually still exist? We will only find out when we arrive at the Falklands/Malvinas and get access again to internet after a one month’s silence.
What a joy to inhale the fresh sea air without clouds of information. Who is getting bored? (¿Quién se aburre?) is the title of the 30th lesson of the Assimil course ‘Spanish without Effort’ that I am presently struggling with.
Only smiling faces on board. In other words: ¿Ademas, Quien puede aburrirse, teniendo la suerte de navigar en el barco ‘Oosterschelde’ (Moreover, who could possibly be bored if one has the pleasure to be on board of the ‘Oosterschelde’?)”