Silly Pictures and a Sewing Workshop Aboard the Yacht
Preparing for the Move
My daughters and I are busily packing for our move aboard the yacht to join the captain, and getting our Altai home ready to rent out long-term. Our journey is now expected to last more than a year... It’s hard to believe we won’t be coming home anytime soon.
The internet served up a funny picture among its nautical jokes, reminding me of a story from my childhood:
There was this Australian series about a woman captain. I think it was called All the Rivers Run. The young woman’s name was Philadelphia.
One episode: the end of the 19th century. The heroine, despite having extensive experience aboard ships, is once again sitting her captain’s exams. The nasty male examiners are, naturally, doing their best to fail her again:
“What will you do if a leak is discovered in the vessel?”
“I’ll repair it this way and that...”
“And if there’s a hole in the hull?”
“I’ll plug it with a sack of flour or something...”
... another million questions along the same lines...
“And what if there are no sacks aboard?” the examiner persists.
“Then I’ll take the sailor with the fattest backside and plug the hole with him!” the exasperated candidate replies.
I laugh with delight; I’m about ten years old...
And now, at last, the perfect illustration. Hooray!
The Sewing Workshop
Meanwhile, the captain has acquired a Sailrite machine for sewing sails and whatever else may need sewing. It looks like an ordinary sewing machine, only extraordinarily powerful. In four days, we’ll take over the baton from the captain, sewing sails and curtains. We’ll put the sewing machine through its paces, because a yachtsman does not live by adventures alone, but also by dealing with their consequences :).
Very soon our family will be together again! After five months apart. Hooray!
P.S. We’ll also see how this contraption handles fabrics of different weights.
In the photo—the floating sewing workshop aboard Lady Mary today. Or rather, not floating, but at anchor.)