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Ireland to Shetland Voyage
Ireland to Shetland Voyage
Today, just before 2am, the sun was still awake and the moon was setting. A red-orange moon, vivid and unforgettable held on the horizon. The sky mirrored the culture of the island, part of modern day Scotland but with history and tradition remembered. As we sailed towards the Fair Isle Lighthouse it was becoming overcast and it started to rain. A shame that the weather took a turn for the…
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Spike Island and Bridewell Prison, Cobh
Spike Island and Bridewell Prison, Cobh
On my last weekend alongside in Cobh I decided to take the 2pm ferry to Spike Island and join the guided tour there.
View of Cobh from Spike Island
Prison buildings, Spike Island
The Island itself has a dark history: although in the 7th Century it was the site of a monastic settlement it later became used as a prison and convict depot. Convicts were kept here prior to transportation, some as young…
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Fota House and Arboretum
Fota House and Arboretum
With the Irish Open on weekend before last I was drawn by the action to Fota Island. I caught a train from Cobh and arrived 15 minutes later, joining the throng headed for the golf course. But the aim of my visit was to learn about the history of Fota House and Arboretum.
I started my day with cake at the Fota House Café. Such a tasty piece of lemon cake, I went back this weekend just to have…
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Cobh Town
Cobh Town.
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Cobh Town
Just now I’m getting to spend some time alongside in a town called Cobh. Gaelic spelling so pronounced ‘Cove’. It’s the second largest natural harbour in the world and was the last port of call for the Titanic, known then as Queenstown. The land all around the waterway slopes down steeply with trees rolling right up to the water’s edge. Cobh itself is built on ledges and lanes running up…
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A Trip to Dumfries...
During our two weeks at anchor off of Lincolnshire I was put on the third officer’s anchor watch and he was put on day work. The Captain encouraged him in the afternoons to fish since we were running low on fresh food. He had no luck the first few days and then finally, he came knocking on my door with two fish in his hands and I followed him out on deck to have a go myself. I was on a high because the Captain had given me 24 hours of shore leave at our last port since my husband, by chance, was visiting the town that weekend also. My husband enjoys fishing and so having a go myself over the side of the ship seemed like an appealing past-time.
When I was young I was obsessed with keeping aquariums. My parents only ever let me keep a cold freshwater tank, but I had my heart set on a tropical marine one. These days if I lived on shore for any length of time I’d probably keep a cold water marine aquarium with shrimps. But I don’t know if it’s legal or not to lift local crustaceans to keep at home. Last Easter time we took a trip to a fish pond in
Dumfries, Logan Fish Pond: http://www.loganfishpond.org.uk/, where a lady keeps a marine pool refreshed by the tide and built originally to store fresh fish for the local house. You can see from the attached picture the Bath House which is adjacent to the pond. The pond is round, very deep and accessed by steps that run round the inside of the encircling stone wall. Now it is opened as a visitor’s attraction with a shop and run by a lovely fair-haired lady with a passion for her fish. She keeps it stocked with ones that have been injured so that they can be sheltered as they regain their strength. There are also rock pools holding different kinds of crabs, starfish and anemones. You can buy food to feed the fish, but she warns you that they bite fingers if you get too close. Our visit reminded me that marine fish can live to great ages and the plaice, especially, seemed to have personalities of their own. They sat near the surface of the water on little ledges, reaching their faces out as you came close. I’ve only ever seen flat fish swim flat and it was a novelty to see them moving through the water tilted with their heads above the surface. The truth of it is they were probably just peckish and thought we had food like the other visitors.
In the shop she had some kind of newt that she said was rare and that she had had to take a special trip to France to escort it back to Scotland on the plane. It was pale with frond-like ears, little eyes that were red and glittery like garnets, and webbed feet. The shape of its face made it seem like it’s wide mouth was smiling. It seemed interested as we approached the tank, but when she came close it became more excited. She told us that it was an intelligent creature with facial recognition. Later
that day we went to see a lighthouse and also went down to the sea where we spotted a porpoise.
On the ship we only caught one more fish, a herring with beautiful with shining scales and gleaming colours.
Elizabeth Goudge
So before spending time at sea I thought that I would never be absorbed in another novel. In recent years my attention span failed me. I guessed that from the age of 16 life lifted off the ground and I no longer needed story books for escapism. But on packing for my first 9week trip I thought I would include a book and give my old favourite pastime another shot. And it occurred to me that the safest bet would be a writer I loved as a child: Elizabeth Goudge, author of The Little White Horse. While I was in Haverfordwest library last summer one of her books caught my attention since it is set locally, at Roch. Also the name, Child of the Sea , seemed appropriate for a book I might enjoy. I found a second hand copy on amazon recently since the one in the library is only for short term loan and you never know when your ship might get delayed, stuck at anchor indefinitely, and I didn’t fancy toting up a ridiculous library fine.
In a nutshell it is a historical novel, the story based on the life of Lucy Walter, first mistress of Prince Charles. I often get embarrassed discussing dates of prominent historical events because of my lack of knowledge, yet I enjoy novels set in the past especially when they are based in Pembrokeshire or other places I have lived in. Growing up in an area where the large number of castle’s and palaces become your playground, my mother’s tours of these ruins would focus on the people’s story: from work, life and love to the cruelties that they might have faced. She taught my brother and me to relate to the people who used to live there, asking us to put ourselves in their places. Empathy has always been at the forefront of my mother’s lessons about life. As well as Goudge’s ability to paint vivid characters and settings what strikes me about her writing is her insightfulness in humanity and spirituality. I find her writing easy to realte to since her ideas about the continuous links running through generations in human history are based on empathy. It is because of this and also her wonderful imagination that I could soon overlook what struck me as an overly floral style of writing.
The timing of when the book crossed my path was uncanny. And since predestined fate is the main theme in the book, as I became absorbed in the story- perhaps absurd but- I began to believe it as some sort of sign. I started reading in Pembrokeshire and the book opens there. Then I moved to stay in the London area- at the point I reached the same setting change in the book. Then my husband’s base was somewhere in Devonshire and I happened to visit Exeter Cathedral just as I reached Lucy’s visit to the Cathedral. And then, as I joined my ship which was operating on the spot market, Lucy sailed to Rotterdam and Rotterdam was our first port of call. Then Paris plays a part in the novel: we were just downstream at Port Jerome on the River Seine at time I reached that part. Other ports in Holland. Rotterdam again. Then Belgium as she moves to Belgium.
My belief that serendipity brought me to the book is also supported by the fact that Goudge’s Lucy Walter is in fact- both by description of personality and physique- my mother. From being born out of a coastal landscape to the character’s thought processes and reactions are my mother’s own. Thank God with vital contrasts in life stories and circumstances- and my mother’s grounded, unmatched common sense. Either way a great book to have with me on the ship and I think it even, somehow, had a positive effect on my life views. One of the big questions in life I have is how to come to terms with the extreme contrasts in people’s living conditions and the things unimaginable that some humans have to endure. Reading this book didn’t offer an answer but it did, somehow, renew the faith I had lost.
So I have found that, along with having a novel that provides a good read, after-work cabin time is perfect for absorption in a book. In fact, I don’t know where I would have been without a book with me. Next I’m sticking with the same author: Scent of Water. This novel, it seems, is set in the 1960’s in a rural English town, so a bit different, and with more of an emphasis on faith.
Evening Swim
Fantastic evening swim today here in Pembrokeshire. I’ve been missing swimming in the sea and have had such urges whilst on my last vessel to jump over the side into the water. Obviously I have more sense than to do that as I’m guessing that would result in the termination of my cadetship. But while I’m home I’m swimming every day.
The sun was out all the time I was at work so after we drove straight down to the beach to make the most of it. Awkward tide times though, high up to meet where the pebbles start. Exciting! Very large waves. Had to time it right and dive straight in to save myself from being keeled over.
Deck Work
The last few days it’s been sunny and hot and since we’re at anchor my fellow cadet and I have been set to deck work from 8am til 5pm. With this fine weather and being so close to the Irish coast I’m beginning to feel I’m missing out on Summertime living onboard a ship for May, June and July this year. Hoping the weather will be spectacular by August when I take my leave. Getting to spend it at home in South West Wales.
Yesterday the land breeze was fragrant, carrying the scent of grass and cattle to the ship. Perhaps some time ashore tomorrow evening, I’m hoping we’ll find an accessible beach for swimming. On deck today the wind was up and the waves were beginning to roll, the salt scent strong in the air. The brightness of the sky, swept clean of clouds, was only caught as reflected light on the surface of the water and the depths remained black. Made me think of a poem I read at primary school: The Pudding like a Night on the Sea, by Ann Cameron. Would be overboard swimming in an instant if the Captain let me.
WHERE WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO VISIT ON YOUR PLANET?
When I'm not at sea I like to go travel to my home county of Pembrokeshire