Is the Pope a Catholic?
Fleck
Sat 4 May 2013 13:07
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Saturday, May 4th 2013
Position 8:39.2S 13:25.2W
One of those rhetorical questions that we sometimes
offer up as humour when faced with a statement of the blindingly obvious. I have
always thought that the more significant question would be, Is the Pope an
atheist? The answer being that we cannot know, because the poor chap (chapess,
one day?) is hardly able to tell us of such a change of heart
from the balcony of St Peter's, one fine Easter Sunday. So, faith, aka belief,
once established, is difficult to subvert. Just where are we going on this one?
Well, I have just spent nearly an hour cleaning the plug hole in the galley,
trying to convince myself that this is another of those fun parts of the
cruising life that make it such a pleasure to be entombed out here in a boat
that is rolling and rocking with spiteful vengeance, as a consequence of being
deliberately slowed down within a stone's throw of Ascension Island.
All after busting a gut (well, a spreader) to get here in a timely fashion
in the first place, and now to avoid arriving in the dark in a strange
place.
And I can confess that it is not a fun part of the
cruising life, that it is a thoroughly boring task, undertaken only because I
have had my fill of keyboard practice for the day, AC Grayling is getting on my
nerves, and the 30 seconds of navigation activity required to establish just
where we are on the planet was completed at dawn. So, indeed right now
I perhaps wish that we were 68 miles from Falmouth Harbour, UK: easy entry
at any time or weather; phone Ancasta, the yacht brokers, job done! So, do
I? Never underestimate the egotism of the blogger: even now I can see you all
before me, the crowd stretching away towards the Tiber in the middle distance.
We must all keep faith. And so bretherin, I beseach you all to weather the
weather, and at dawn tomorrow the anchorage at Georgetown, Ascension Island will
be revealed to us in all it's glory, and there being no ferry boat, the
dinghy approach to the surge ridden landing steps will further endorse our
belief that the one true path through our alloted span, to enlightenment,
is the cruising life.
Other notices: my sister's birthday yesterday, many
congrats. and I hope you got my email. And my first wife has apparently signed
up for a leg of the Clipper RTW yacht race. Well done, that girl. I gather that
each boat has a crew of 20, if everyone does 30 seconds a day at the galley sink
plug hole, it should shine like a new pin by the time the boat gets to
China.
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