A Life Afloat (Maybe)

Chapter 14

Frustration had become a worrisome friend of Peter's over the last couple of days, still not having heard from his friend he had tried to concentrate on his studying of all the notes that he had made, that Alec had given to him as well as reading as much information as he could on the website suggested by his friend. It had got to the point yesterday afternoon where he had a bit of a meltdown and had thrown all his notes on to the floor, calling himself all the names he could think of, some not so bad others as blue as could be, words he had not used since his days in the forces. After a fruitless evening and a restless night's sleep, leaving his 'van he went for a walk not only calm his mind but to clear his head, even though it was still pouring with rain. Eventually, he found himself down by the old watermill and its mill stream, while pausing for some considerable time, he just lent against the fence and watched the water gurgle past. With the ducks seemingly having a forceful discussion amongst themselves. A pair of swans serenely moving across the water as if propelled by some unknown force. Quickly followed by five or six cygnets, all of them in a straight line as if tied together by an invisible string. Like little soldiers all on parade.

It looked as though his attempt at some form of therapy, water moving slowly by and the gentle pace of life down here by the millstream had worked, he realised that his mind was becoming more settled, just as it had done when he was out sailing in the yacht with his friend. Thinking of Alec, he wondered as to when he would be returning, he should have asked him for his mobile number, when he gave Alec his own number, there again, it would be an imposition that would be unfair on Alec, he had far more on his mind to worry about than calling Peter just to give him an update, it was, after all, nothing to do with him, he was just one of many friends, so he would just have to buckle down and keep on studying as best he could, writing down all the queries he had. With some form of resolve now settled in his mind, it was time to get back to his 'van, dry off, change his clothes as was soaked to the skin, his clothes sticking to him like second skin making him really uncomfortable so the gentle stroll of earlier in the day became a rather brisk walk. Once back in his miserable 'van he wasted no time on stripping off all his wet clothing and having a very quick shower, quick, because it was a cold shower, not because of time, dried off and dressed in a complete set of clean clothes, he put the heating on not only to keep warm but also to dry his clothes before he put them into the laundry bag for his next trip to the dreaded launderette.

Now it was time for him to start doing what he had decided down by the millstream and that was to get on with his studying, shuffling through all paperwork that he had accumulated during the last few weeks he put them into some sort of order, trying to remember which notes were created. Before he actually started going over his notes, just the thought of going through his notes had almost brought tears to his eyes, as once again black, yellow, black and green, red, green, dots and dashes ran through his mind, Aaargh! Couldn't they make it simpler, there again, he thought making it simpler wouldn't make it safer, these rules had been established over hundreds of years and countless numbers of sailors had died because of different sets of rules for different countries, so he should stop his whining and winging and get on with his studies, to get away from the colours and buoys, he decided to go back to the first rules of sailing, how a boat sails and how sails work, problem, should he commit it to mind as it was written down or should he remember things and parts by rote, just like a parrot, he grinned to himself, a parrot would better at it than me he thought but continued doggedly going over and over and over the notes. OK! let's see, he said still talking to himself. Boats move across through the water because of the wind's pressure on the sail. The keels pressure on the water, not so sure? Is it that the wind goes faster along the outside of the sail than it does along the inside of the sail? and the pressure that the keel exerts against the water. Because of the pressure of the wind against the sail, it keeps the boat upright and moves it in the forward direction. Now, what was the expression that Alec used, it's like squeezing a bar of soap between your fingers, it squirts forward and that's how a boat moves, reacting to the pressure of the wind and the water, mm! that sounds right, I'll have to have a really long and strong question and answer session with Alec he mused. What was next ah! Yes, the different parts of a yacht, Think! Think! Right, what was it, clockwise from the mast, at the top was a Burgee, sometimes but not always, followed by forestay, bow, deck, hull, keel, stern, rudder, rear stay, is that it? He asked himself, off the mast, at the rear, astern, he corrected himself, was the boom which is supported by a kicking stay, forward of the mast, between it and forestay is the jib sail or maybe a Genoa, between the mast, boom and rear stay was the mainsail, heavens above! will all this stay inside those lazy grey cells of mine, he asked himself, there really was a bucketful of stuff he had to come to terms with, not only recognise the words but more importantly, to understand what they mean. Right then, he thought, mm! We know why it sails and what the parts are in the main, what do we have next, ah! Yes, the sails, the top is the head, the front edge, the Luff, the bottom corner the tack, the bottom of the sail is the foot, the corner at the stern end of the boom is the clew, the edge between the clew and the head is called the leech, the curved edge of the sail is the roach, we also have, the supports that run across the sail they are battens and the thin bits of material that hang down are called tell tales and helps to show the strength of the wind, is there anything else, I hope not, time for a break he thought, a cup of tea and pain killers, he was right, it had given him a nasty headache.

Having had not only a cup of tea and painkillers, he had taken the opportunity to have a light meal, nothing exciting, just a cod fillet he had thrown into his oven but it satisfied his hunger and he settled down to abuse his little grey cells some more, they had complained before and he was sure that they would get their revenge with a horrendous headache later in the evening because what he was revising now, was one of those things he had struggled with when Alec had given him some brief notes on and which he had later looked up on the web, in an attempt to make it clearer in his mind. What did they call them ah! Yes, the points of sail based on the direction of the wind, once more it was described on a clock face basis, so let's see, he thought if any of it has truly registered in his mind, from say, between five minutes to the hour and five minutes past the hour it was called the no-sail zone and for boats to head upwind they would need to sail, zigzagging, using close hauled and reach points of sail, which really means that a boat cannot sail directly into the wind and it has to be sailed close hauled. Then, about ten minutes past is a close reach, quarter past a beam reach, about twenty minutes past is a broad reach, thirty minutes is a run and that was with the wind directly behind you or astern, as the true sailors say, about twenty minutes to, was again an abroad reach, quarter to, again a beam reach, about ten minutes to, was again a close reach, confusing, confusing, confusing but he supposed and very much hoped that it would all eventually make some sense to him, if he really wanted to become a true sailor, he would have to understand it, completely and utterly be comfortable with it all. it really is a complicated business he thought and with his mind crying 'I give up' he decided to call it a day and get some rest, there will be more worry about and study in the morning he said to himself and wondered if all sailors talked to themselves like he did, clearing all his notes away he prepared himself for bed, crawled inside his sleeping bag and luckily he drifted off to sleep very quickly without any further thoughts on boats, sails or sailing.