First of all here is the answer to our inaugural ponder:
NIGHT IN THE IMPERIAL CITY. A SPECTRE OF DEATH SETS OUT, ASTRIDE A DOLPHIN, CROSSING THE GONG-TORMENTED SEA, FOR THE ISLANDS OF THE BLEST.
It’s Byzantium by W. B. Yeats. You can see a brief analysis and a link to the poem on the Ponderings page.
Of course, sailing is a perfect theme for today’s blog as I was down at the Baltimore Seafood and Wooden Boat Festival. There was little sign of seafood, apart from a wee tray of cold prawns given out with the pints. Not a single fish stall, or oysters, or mussels, but there were lots of wooden boats. The most beautiful was Peel Castle, a 1929 Cornish wooden fishing lugger. Two of my friends are lucky enough to be spending a week on her starting tomorrow morning, I’ll be waving them off and scanning the skies for storm clouds. Graham, the charming Captain, has also said that my mother can join the boat for a couple of nights when they sail up to the Outer Isles in Scotland. This will be a real treat as my mother grew up on a boat in Cornwall, and they will be sailing to the Isle Of Skye where she also used to live. A nice circular story.
Peel Castle photographed by Emma Jervis
The most entertaining moment of the festival was the Build A Boat in 8 Hours competition. As the name suggests, small teams have 8 hours to build a seaworthy boat out of a set selection of materials. They then have to row out to a bouy and sail back in. My favourite entry was the pink catamaran crewed by two 11 year olds and one 8 year old, all girls. They were wearing multicoloured tutus with pink and white headbands, and the boat was called Tiz and the Sea Faeries. One crew member seemed to jump ship quite early while the others set off in a determined fashion…but no..in fact only one of them was determined…and so as she paddled furiously the other one looked around her and enjoyed the audience. This, of course, meant that the wee boat went around in a circle. When the budding celebrity did attempt to row, the boat headed off in entirely the wrong direction as she was not as determined as her crewmate. Eventually they zig zagged their way across the harbour with much squeaking and shouting, being cheered on by a small posse of pink bedecked girls. Having not entirely completed the course they came in a jubliant second. At which point the celebrity left the boat in order to enjoy the applause, leaving her increasingly irate friend to drag the boat up the slipway on her own whilst verbally expressing her displeasure. It was pink power in action!
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