Ever since I came back from the most recent Port Davey Voyage, I’ve
been looking for a way to get more quality quiet time, and the fact that
we have three new crew on board means the ship is noisier during the
day. Recently, I’ve found myself rising earlier in order to have some
time for reading, coding, thinking or writing. It’s given me enough time
to read my next book, Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship
Troopers.
In a sail training voyage, trainees come to us with no experience of
the sea and leave eight-to-ten days later as moderately competent hands:
they can work aloft, handle rope, know basic knots, work on the deck and
set and strike sail. Depending on how quickly the trainees can be
motivated in the first days, there’s often time to go further: skills
like chart work, navigation and watchkeeping are taught by the mates,
who watch over the trainees as they work. Motivated crews, like those
from Deakin University, can go much further than a school-age group, who
necessarily must spend more time learning to cope with new hardships
like seasickness, homesickness and close-quarters living.
Even so, the amount of progress the school-age groups make is
impressive, and I think it is because they are living their education.
During the day, they are surrounded by work; when their work is done,
they sleep; when they wake up, their work is there for them. It is this
total immersion into their work (and the isolation from everything
else), I think, that encourages rapid learning: there is almost nothing
else to do but learn the ways of the ship.
Well, that’s it. I’ve finished my final voyage for the year. It was a
good chance to train up our new crew and for me to get some more things
ticked off in my work book. This one took us to Bruny Island, then Maria
Island and back to Bruny on the final day. On the final day, we had the
local wildlife come up to greet us:
And during that final day, we had some interesting cloud patterns
develop:
But in general, I didn’t use the camera. I’ve been up and down the
coast enough that I’m more concerned with keeping up on sleep and
getting my work book finished than taking happy snaps. We did see whales
coming back from Maria Island, but they were too far away to photograph,
and we had dolphins when I was asleep below. Amusingly, we had an alert
on our INMARSAT warning about an “area temporarily dangerous to
navigation due to rocket carrier elements falling daily”. It was well
clear of us, so we weren’t bothered.
Instead, I’ll share a gem from a voyage late last year. We had a
waypoint to hit at a certain time, and even at idle revs we were going
too fast. So to waste a bit of time, the first mate signed his initials
in the chart plotter:
When he came in for breakfast, all he said was that we were going too
fast and that he’d put the crew through some maneuvering drills.
On this most recent voyage, I have found time to continue reading.
This time, it is James Miller’s The
Philosophical Life. (It appears to be called “Examined Lives” in
America). It’s a collection of 12 mini-biographies of philosophers
throughout history: Socrates, Plato, Diogenes, Aristotle, Seneca, Augustine, Montaigne,
Descartes,
Rousseau, Kant, Emerson and
Nietzsche.
The book was not exactly what I was expecting: the back cover makes the
book sound like it examines how each thinker approached life, but
details of their respective systems are only presented as part of each
biography. It’s good to see how their systems developed, but it was a
little disappointing. Clearly, I need to find a proper philosophy
text.
I’ve just come back from my final trip to Port Davey. On this trip,
we were lighter on crew than usual, which meant the run into Port Davey
and the run back around the South Coast were done in two watches: four
hours on, four hours off. That was how it was done in the old days, but
modern regulations mean it’s no longer allowed for extended periods of
time.
Once we were at anchor inside Port Davey, we were able to split up
the watches and everyone was able to get a sensible amount of sleep. In
fact, they were some of the most restful and productive nights I’ve had
in a long time. The night watch was two hours of peace and quiet, far
away from anyone else with no online distractions. It was easy to sit
and read, write or code and just get up to do the scheduled checks. Not
only that, but the scenery is much better out there than in the middle
of town:
Now that I’m voyaging again, I have many more opportunities to read.
Especially on this Port Davey trip, as the passengers are nowhere near
as much work as the school students. I’ve previously mentioned my
weakness for pop-mathematics
books, but I don’t feel guilty reading a biography. The
Man Who Loved Only Numbers is a biography of Paul Erdos, one of the
most prolific and strangest mathematicians who ever lived.
