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From: George Huxtable (no email)
Date: Wed Jun 08 2005 - 07:02:44 EDT
I've greatly enjoyed reading "Antarctic Oasis- under the spell of South
Georgia", by Tim and Pauline Carr (Norton, 1998), and feel the urge to
recommend it to list members.
The Carrs arrived in South Georgia in 1993 in their engineless 28-foot gaff
cutter Curlew, then 100 years old. They were to take up the post of
curators at the Grytviken whaling museum, living year-round on the island,
aboard Curlew, either alongside in Grytviken, or exploring the island's
harbours and coves.
The text, I thought, was a bit over-the-top, here and there, but then
clearly South Georgia is such an extraordinary environment, which has
enchanted the Carrs, that's only to be expected. But it's mainly the
photos, of the teeming wildlife, the wicked mountains, the icebergs, and
the blue bays. In which, if you look hard, you can usually see a tiny image
of Curlew, sails aloft. Quite stunning pictures!
What I find important in such a book is the quality of the mapping that
goes with it. Wherever the Carrs travel around the island, you always have
a sketch-map that shows precisely where they are, and picks out some of the
(many) dangers to avoid in that inhospitable world.
Where the Carrs are now, I have no idea. They may still be at Grytviken,
but Tim must be in his sixties now. Perhaps they have moved on. Does any
list-member know?
What particularly interested me was the story of Curlew, a Falmouth Punt
which has been much un-modified by the Carrs to return her closer to her
original state.
Relevant to what we have discussed here recently is their attitude to
safety, and the equipment they carry. No engine, just sails and a sweep, to
get out of dangerous corners. No electrics then, no electrical equipment,
no radio, no electronic navigation. No liferaft, just a wooden dinghy. No
stanchions or safety-lines. Paraffin lighting and heating. About the only
concession to modernity is the Aries vane-gear: that's about the only
difference from the way Slocum was equipped, in his craft of about the same
vintage.
Some may regard that attitude, in such unforgiving waters, as folly, as Lu
Abel described the Smeeton's voyages. I do not. I envy their guts. It
allows a different sort of cruising, in which there's no technical
maintenance called for, nothing but some carpentry skills. That's how
Slocum could be so self-reliant.
It also calls for real seagoing competence, which the Carrs seem to have in
plenty. And it needs a different attitude to risk than our modern
civilisation wants to accept.
=================
For hundreds of years, sailors have gone to sea in the realisation that
they were rather likely to die there. Ships were more likely to end their
lives by accident rather than old age, and the same applied to their crews,
if they avoided disease.
Our lives are going to end sometime, so if it happens at sea, is that so
much worse than elsewhere? Such a fatalistic attitude is unacceptable to
many today, when risk, it seems, has to be avoided at all costs. But to
some voyagers, it's more acceptable to perish out there, on their own,
rather than put others at risk by radio-ing up for a search and rescue.
To many, part of the spice of sailing (and presumably other sports too,
such as climbing or caving) is some element of real risk involved, even if
nowadays we go to such lengths to minimise it. Some accept more of that
risk than do others, and I respect them for it, even if my own sailing is a
lot more timid.
George.
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contact George Huxtable by email at , by phone at
01865 820222 (from outside UK, +44 1865 820222), or by mail at 1 Sandy
Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
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