Fate turns up for the landlubber

Sometimes  it seems that Fate doesn't want us, we frail humans, to be too positive. It happens often at sea. A strong breeze blows offshore from the anchorage you seek, and cruelly, the moment you begin tacking, zig-zagging towards hope, it begins blasting as a gale force. The dab hand of Fate, of course.

The wise and simplest plan is to drop the sails and wait till the next day when the wind may well drop.

However, instead, you decide on a positive tack and take the energetic course to reach the land, even it if means some tricky tacking might well be needed to avoid shipwreck.

Decide on the positive approach, the more difficult approach, and you can be certain that Fate will add challenges to the battle...

FATE’S PERFIDY

The tide will turn before its expected to, the wind will develop some nasty cross-blasts at the entrance, half a dozen sailing vessels will suddenly get active right in your path …

Nowadays I am a landlubber with landlubberish habits and desires. Writing heads the list. What joy when I find a book that feels really well written and very cleverly put together.

At least, this passion must be free from Fate’s perfidy. Must be. And the other night, at the reserved time set for reading, I began a book I’ve been wanting to try for many, many years. It was a paperback from the library, E M Forster's A Room with a View.

Excellent, but the print was rather small for late-night study. It’s not necessary in modern Britain to suffer like that. I searched online, found a hardcover version offered at one of the library’s satellites.

It was a bit distant to visit, so I ordered it, and returned the paperback to the local branch.

WAITING TO BE SERVED

Soon an email announced that the book awaited me. I rushed to the library and discovered the book didn’t wait there.

The library with the reserved tome was rather distant. My road racer bike has been stolen, so I couldn't go right away. Today, on an outing for other needs, I was able to visit the right library.

I had quite a wait to be served, but before long a librarian was on her way to find it. She returned and handed it over with a ‘Hope you enjoy it.’

It was the very paperback that began it all. Perhaps next time I should visit a pound shop for some magnifying specs.

At home tonight, … Continues on the blogs for my ocean-travel adventure book, Sailing to Purgatory, at SailingToPurgatory.com