I am hydrovane
Fleck
Tue 14 May 2013 13:18
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Tuesday 14th May, 2013
Position (always noon, UT) 8:16.0S
28:15.4W
Each of Pamuk's chapters are written from the
perspective of different characters, even objects. For example a sketched
tree' 'I don't want to be a tree, I want to be its meaning'. Without
context this will seem enigmatic at the least; but poetry, n'est ce pas? The
thoughts of a traveller, 'If a lover's face survives emblazoned on your heart,
the world is still yout home'.
Anyway, it got me to appreciate the inanimate help
that my 'Hydrovane' self steering provides.We roll through about 30 degrees 18
times per minute, and each roll thows us off course by about 10 degrees; so the
self steering has to correct the course by 180 degrees each minute, or the
equivalent of a complete circle every two minutes. That is 720 pirouettes per
day, or 5,000 since we left Ascension Island. It is no wonder that the odd
bearing has needed replacing from time to time, and that I talk to it in such an
encouraging fashion each morning.
Yesterday we sighted another ship: a loaded tanker,
and with the AIS I can measure distance off: nearest in this case 4 miles. So
there is stilll life on the planet, and I hope all readers are
well.
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