Wednesday 2 April 2014

Genesis


 

Genesis no not the pop group with Phil Collins but the start of things type.  The sort of let there be light type of the biblical sense.   Every project needs a beginning, a point of departure and every beginning needs inspiration.  I remember as a kid floating stuff like rubber tires, bloody great logs hazards to shipping Styrofoam, flotsam, and jetsam and such.   Riding on them like Captain Ahab on Moby Dick’s great white back.  Indicators confirmed suspicions of the primordial beginnings of sailing.    

I started off poor from a broken family in a small mining village in Scotland so there was no transatlantic circumnavigation in daddy’s yacht.  No gin and tonic at the Yacht club.  I grew up in an orphanage and clearly remember getting into some serious trouble when George Stewart and I found some truck inner tubes and decided to run this uncharted river in the hinterland of Ayrshire.  It was two days before the police found us.   We were adrift like Huckleberry Fin, absolutely free, well at least until we were caught.  I have looked deeply into my miscreant youth to find the moment of the spark the ember that would develop into a full blown obsession but it is veiled and hard to see like a penny dropped into a wishing well that tumbles ever deeper into darkness there are flashes, reflections, but nothing tangible just a vague sense of the void. 

Navigation started quite early on there were the embryonic sorties on to Dartmoor when I was twelve.  I had signed up for the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme and we had to slog from hill to hill.  Try finding a twelve year old today that could or would want to do that.  Dartmoor famous for Arthur Conan Doles “Hounds of the Baskervilles”, failed prison escapes, and dead Royal Marines.  Our first night on the moors and the rain was torrential It was then I decided to start the fire with the map.    A very nice example of improvisation as we huddled hypothermic.  Which doesn’t seem like your most catastrophic navigational failure until you realize that you might need it to traverse the rest of the moors the very next morning.  Regardless of how sophisticated my sense of direction is today on that morning on that hill I discovered the ability to improvise, adapt, and overcome.

Wednesday 26 March 2014

The Name


I had significant difficulty coming up with a name for the Vega (formally known as Albion).  Until that is I thought about it.  I liked Beowulf but there is a Vega with the name already.  I also liked Sea wolf which as it turns out is a class of sailboats. Fenrir seems like a very obvious fit for me.  From Viking mythology (The Edda)



Fenrir is a gigantic and terrible monster in the shape of a wolf. He is the eldest child of Loki and the giantess Angrboda. The gods learned of a prophecy which stated that the wolf and his family would one day be responsible for the destruction of the world. They caught the wolf and locked him in a cage. Only the god of war, Tyr, dared to feed and take care of the wolf.

When he was still a pup they had nothing to fear, but when the gods saw one day how he had grown, they decided to render him harmless. However, none of the gods had enough courage to face the gigantic wolf. Instead, they tried to trick him. They said the wolf was weak and could never break free when he was chained. Fenrir accepted the challenge and let the gods chain him. Unfortunately, he was so immensely strong that he managed to break the strongest fetters as if they were cobwebs.

After that, the gods saw only one alternative left: a magic chain. They ordered the dwarves to make something so strong that it could hold the wolf. The result was a soft, thin ribbon: Gleipnir. It was incredibly strong, despite what its size and appearance might suggest. The ribbon was fashioned of six strange elements: the footstep of a cat; the roots of a mountain; a woman's beard; the breath of fishes; the sinews of a bear; and a bird's spittle.

The gods tried to trick the wolf again, only this time Fenrir was less eager to show his strength. He saw how thin the chain was, and said that was no pride in breaking such a weak chain. Eventually, though, he agreed, thinking that otherwise his strength and courage would be doubted. Suspecting treachery however, he in turn asked the gods for a token of good will: one of them had to put a hand between his jaws. The gods were not overly eager to do this, knowing what they could expect. Finally, only Tyr agreed, and the gods chained the wolf with Gleipnir. No matter how hard Fenrir struggled, he could not break free from this thin ribbon. In revenge, he bit off Tyr's hand.

Being very pleased with themselves, the gods carried Fenrir off and chained him to a rock (called Gioll) a mile down into the earth. They put a sword between his jaws to prevent him from biting. On the day of Ragnarok, Fenrir will break his chains and join the giants in their battle against the gods. He will seek out Odin and devour him. 



I like the name and the story and it symbolizes the struggle and constraints that ordinary people face while breaking the strongest fetters of class and education.   The Gods liked him when he was weak and feared him as he grew.  Anyway that's the name I don’t know how well it rings out in a Pan Pan or Mayday but it sounds strong and oceanicly significant.  Sincerely John