GANEIDA'S KNOT.

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Quaker by conviction, mother by default, Celticst through love, Christ follower because I once was lost but now am found...

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

I must go down to the sea again...

A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. ~ Grace Murray Hopper


As Rat tells Mole in Wind in the Willows There's nothing quite like messing about in boats & I could sail practically before I could walk. For most of my life I've lived beside water. Knowing how to swim & row & sail was as necessary as breathing but it began well before my time in my father's home port of Brisbane. It may even have started earlier than that. My great~grandfather [forget how many times removed] was a ship's captain when to sail from London to Sydney took most of a year & he got shipwrecked 3 times. After the first time I'd've probably never set foot in a boat again but they made them hardy [or foolhardy] back then & he lived to tell the tale ~ 3 times!

Anyway, early on in their relationship my father introduced my mother to his other love ~ the longboat he had proudly built himself & he invited her to be the lovely figurehead on her maiden voyage down the Brisbane River. [I'm sure someone in my family is now screaming I've got the details wrong but you get the idea.] So dad loaded his pretty girlfriend aboard his newly finished boat & launched them onto the murky brown waters Brisbanites refer to as a river while he stood by with the camera to record the moment.

I've never yet seen a picture of this momentous event. As mum smiled & dad prepared to snap away his pride & joy sank gracefully beneath my mother's feet into the murky depths & the waters closed over her head! My father had forgotten to put the bungs in! It says much for my mother that their relationship endured, boats & all.

Dad fished his first boat out of the water, dragged her home & parked her under the house. She moved with him to every home he ever lived in but she never saw water again. Dad moved on & we witnessed a long parade of boats pass through his hands~ sailing dinghies, cruisers, rowboats, chug~a~lugs, racers & my personal favourite [apart from my own personal sailing boat] was a 16'foot longboat that was an absolute joy to row. I think the termites got that first boat in the end. Pity. She had lovely lines but was obviously considered either unseaworthy or untrustworthy. Maybe both. Boats have personalities you know.

3 comments:

MamaOlive said...

Lol. I enjoy reading about boats, but I can't say I care too much for it. My parents took me in a canoe when I was 4 or 5, and I still hate the thought. Swimming is all right, but that's because you're supposed to be in the water when you go for a swim. When you go on a boat, you're not supposed to end up in the water. :-)

Constance said...

We have canoes since Dave is an avid fisherman (fresh water lakes and not the pounding surf like in your neck of the woods.) I don't care much for them because they feel too wobbly. Case in point was when we went on a camp out 3 years ago and we ended up in the lake. As I fell overboard with all of my clothes and boots on I thought,
"How did this happen?"
It was only an instant but I swear that it happened in slow motion!
Connie

Sandra said...

I am not comfortable on water, I don't know why. My father and his brothers were in the Navy during WWII, but that is the extent of our family history with sailing. I live in a state with over 10,000 lakes and I have no interest in them!

It sure is good to have you back and now I see you will be away again. Enjoy your time before life gets really hectic once more. : )