Opua: bouncing
Opua: bouncing
With the moon closer to the Earth than it has been for eighteen years, Opua’s 6’-7’/2 meter tides are 9’/2.7 meters, and the currents unusually strong.
The ramp which normally leads down to the Opua Cruising Club floating dinghy dock slanted upward at high tide yesterday; and the row back out to HAWKE was slow and tedious, with small chaotic cross waves leaping up all around me.
Last night I was awakened several times by waves slapping, smashing and dashing against HAWKE’s hull. The motion almost drove me from the v-berth.
Today we have intermittent showers and wind of twenty knots, gusting twenty-five. Enough for me to tire of the sound of the flag flapping and bring it below.
I didn’t try to go ashore, which would have been possible but wet. And as you know I’m dry.
If this continues I may sleep in the main cabin tonight.
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Neither EGREGIOUS nor CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE had electrical systems. Both did have self-powered paddle-wheel boat speed indicators; and EGREGIOUS had a depthfinder with a replaceable internal 9 volt battery.
Continuing thinking about my use of electricity on THE HAWKE OF TUONELA, I have realized that almost all the devices I now use didn’t even exist twenty or so years ago: iTouch; Kindle; laptop; GPS chartplotter; LED lights.
The lights on EGREGIOUS were kerosene. On CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE stars.
Despite requiring power, these devices make my life simpler rather than more complicated. The iTouch is easier to carry than five hundred CDs; and the Kindle than a hundred books.
After watching ROME, I am currently reading my first paper paged book this year, The National Book Award winning novel, AUGUSTUS, by John Williams, which I’ve read a couple of times before.
Of Octavia, the sister of Octavius Caesar, who became known as Augustus, it was said “that had she been a man, and less intelligent, she could have become a great philosopher.”
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That is not today’s sky. I feel the need for some color.
Thursday, March 24, 2011