Artistic License!

Serendipity
David Caukill
Fri 19 Jun 2015 18:48

Friday 19 June,  2015

North Atlantic Ocean 40.30.0N 30 35.0W

Today's Blog by David  (Time zone: BST; UTC +1)

 

We are now on passage back towards Falmouth.   Having waited again for a “window” to open, it has done so with a fair forecast – one much better than in 2001 - the last time I did this passage!   There is a depression tracking across the Atlantic with a weak cold front reaching us on Monday but the wind ahead of it will build from tomorrow morning and blow us generally homeward.    The wind is light today and we need to get north to find that weather – so we are motoring.  This leg, the last ocean passage of the World Tour, is 1,278 miles.  The journey should take 7-8 days; an arrival next Friday or Saturday is in prospect.

 

You will have gathered that we quite enjoyed Flores.  It was an enchanting island. Large enough to have most facilities but small enough for us to get around it in a couple of days.  We found the people generally pleasant and welcoming. So now we are homeward bound. 

 

Now, to the point. You may recall Richard’s recent picture from Horta:

 

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If you have been captivated by this blog since the beginning, as I know some of you are,  you may recall that it is customary in some ports for voyagers to leave behind a record of their passing. In a number of  ports popular among sailors, such as the  Azores, Madeira and some yottie spots in the Canaries , it is traditional to paint a calling card on the harbour wall as a sign to other voyagers – friends and foe alike – that you had passed by.  In Horta – as you can see these paintings extend over hundreds of yards of walls, in  both the inner and outer harbours.  

 

You may have wondered why there was no mention of our own offering? Well, there was a reason for that.

 

On 13 October 2011, I recorded in this Blog my first attempt at this traditional practice. Admittedly, it was conducted in haste, in difficult geography among the boulders on the outside of a newly constructed harbour mole (a tourism project funded again by the EU, I thanked you for your contribution at the time).  Were you to look back, you would see that for various reasons it was not exactly a re-sounding success (and probably would have gone unreported but for the presence of Bob Cousins and his camera!):

 

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A budding Banksy’s Mark 1 attempt – showing  excellent planning and layout, control of colour and deft brushwork.

(Blog 13 October 2011)

 

For some reason, we have not since sought to leave our mark in any subsequent port!  That was not for fear of any criticism of the artistic merit of my creations but primarily because - to my surprise - this practice is not universal – indeed it seems to be restricted to the north Atlantic Islands. So since my Mark 1 offering in the Canaries, we have carried the paint and tools of the trade all the way around the world, buried in the depths of the lazarette  ……….. as were my memories of this masterpiece.

 

On landing at Horta, I confess my heart sank as I saw the hundreds, probably thousands, of yachts who had marked their passage in some way – some still clearly visible from up to 20 years ago (Mike Pocock’s “Blackjack” for example (1998, 2001 and 2004).  Recollections of my earlier exposition in the Canaries flooded back (I confess, I had forgotten quite how good it was!) and so I made all sorts of excuses why we were not going to leave our mark in Horta (Not enough time; not enough space (I’d have to over-paint another ship’s offerings) etc. and we were anyway initially moored too far from the normal sites).

 

Once we were in Flores, and had decided to stay there to await the “window”,  I was running out of excuses: there was plenty of time and space L . I resolved to learn the lessons from my Mark 1 attempt and leave our mark on the wall, right there in Lajes, Flores,  The mole is reasonably new (only about 5 years old) and there was plenty of space to choose from.

 

Confident in my ability to express myself with oils, Peter and I selected a conspicuous spot and I set about my task. ON Thursday evening,  I invited all of the crew to a Private Viewing of my latest artistic creation:

 

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Mark 2, four years in the gestation – something of an improvement dontcha think?