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Logbook #2: Penglai...
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My fingers are frozen, it's ten in the morning and tomorrow it's august.
Hell!
Belle Ile, beautiful who knows why, welcomed us (VERY LITTLE) enthusiastically yesterday night at
eleven-thirty: yes, this time we did REALLY cast-off!
At eleven-thirty we exited the Arzal lock, and at 23:30 we were anchoring in a cove (the typical
any-cove-will-do-look-right-that-one-stop-there-or-I-will-throw-you-overboard!!!) on Belle
Ile, which the next morning turned out to be really dull: low-lying, sandy,
ICE-COLD, ...and people comes here to spend their vacation!!!
The point (route 225, compass 231. Nautical humor, never mind...) is the
following: as soon as the Commander will have fixed the forward locker door into which he fell
yesterday, with the help of the she-Commander who had previously done the same, and mine who took badly a rogue
wave, we will set sail for good.
really really.
Yesterday, we did sixty-odd miles in twelve hours, track record, although we were so tired to let it go rather unnoticed
(besides, the fact that Shaula 3 is ENORMOUSLY faster than its predecessor was quite
obvious).
Seventy miles, twelve hours. Hard helming with twenty knots on the nose -
apparent, but the sails, metaphysical as they are, apparently feel that one: boh! - practically constant and with a sea that on shaula 2 would have sent us crying while now we just
proffer: "what a nuisance...!".
Hard helming that I mostly did myself.
By eight o'clock, I had dropped in my bunk and slept like a stone, they woke me at eleven to prepare for
anchoring: embarrassing.
Embarrassing, but it's hard work!
Why all this?
Why this useless preamble?
Well, now it becomes an interactive diary: get a map of France, extending to
Spain. Done?
Good.
Now, follow with your finger the WEST coast, the one that joins the two countries in a large
gulf: that's the gulf of Gascogne (D'Artagnan, Cyrano, that kind of folks).
Done?
Good.
Now, FORGET the gulf, and look for Belle Ile (you'll find it crossing Lorient at the north and Saint Nazaire at the
east), leave it there and now jump to the coast near cape Finisterre to find La
Coruna, Espagna.
Done?
Fantastic, you're very good!
Great, we are almost there: now get a rule, a stencil, and draw a line between Belle Ile and La
Coruna.
Those, my dear friends, are the scaled-down representation of THREE-HUNDRED-AND-TWENTY
F***ING NAUTICAL MILES THAT WE WILL TACKLE IN AN HOUR NO STOP HELP WE ARE ABOUT TO DIE THIS IS MY LAST WILL
I HAVE NO HOPE!!!
No, despair is useless.
Better to die with honor, modestly.
Well, farewell to all, we should get in touch again from Spain, I won't have any contact until
there, if you want you may write.
ciau ciau,
adios
Lore
p.s.: Penglai not at all :)
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