Means of Seeing what the eye brings

Even after i edit out all my keyboarding errors, communication is fogged. When it’s difficult to make a point to myself, how hard does it become to express the message outwardly?
Imagine you don’t understand english. look at these two words, and just roll the sound of them around your tongue, ignoring, for now, their meanings.
“Jester” and “Gesture”.
In the end, context is usually what makes our language (english) work. Still, when my “little voice” is dictating the inner dialogue, it speaks in english… when the message of “thought” is delivered through the medium of “thought”, how many ways can i misunderstand myself? How many ways can i be misunderstood?

Mirabella III and V in harbour today. James and i gave in to our curiosity and took Scott’s dinghy out for a look at the world’s largest. Well, yup, it’s big. Looks smaller than Athena (a much grander and prettier craft, IMO), even up close. i had been feeling sure that it would come off looking like an ocean liner at close range, but the proportions are still pretty spot-on; from 100 feet away, your eyes might decieve you and make you think you’re looking at a smaller boat only 25 feet away… until you see someone on deck for scale. Yikes!
The shrouds are solid stainless rod as big around as my thigh. The boom is easily as long, wide, and deep as the hulls of most every other boat i’ve ever sailed on. Silliness compounded by silliness.
In other news, the “new boat” is coming along nicely. The centerboard is done; lead cast in place, ‘glassed over, and painted. The decking is cut out and ready to go on. i’ve been putting off dealing with the rudder (technicaly correct, but estheticaly lacking) and instead throwing myself into all the niggly bits of mast hardware. Well, ta-da! i’m (mostly) done with the mast; i’ve gotten the many metal bits sorted, and the mast is on the spar jacks out back with the first coat of paint on the dry.
The spars are getting painted “Bristol Beige”, a common traditional off-white colour which i’d better describe as “milk with a little coffee added”. The hull of the boat will get sanded off before being repainted dark green. The bottom paint and bootstripe will be black, the interior Bristol Beige. The mainsail and stays’l, as befitting a traditional boat of such colours, will be traditional Tanbark, a deep russet red colour. The jib will likely look best white, as will the tops’l.
Still, paint and sails are just fantasies at this point. That darned rudder still needs to be completed, along with a proper tiller. The rigging must be done (although that part is more fun than work), and all the deck hardware needs to be completed. Still loads to do!

Finally; a “real” boat in Soper’s Hole. This week we’re playing host to Marguerite, a 1895 Channel Pilot Cutter. She’s a Cornish boat, with the distinctive and desireable low eliptical stern. Fully-equipped with early-1900’s gear, oozing character, reeking of tar and linseed oil, and completely traditionaly rigged. About 70′ overall. Perfect.
If i had to pick a favourite historic gaffer from, say, the pages of John Leather’s “Gaff Rig Handbook”, it would be a traditional English pilot cutter.
Also great to see such a historic boat actively cruising! A family affair, with three adults and two young kids, they’ve come across the Atlantic for a winter of cruising the Caribbean, and will be heading back over after Antigua Classics.
One of the owners came ashore to get water at the yard, and delighted with my little green boat taking shape behind the shop; in rig and hullform, it’s a very similar shape, albeit much scaled-down.

Well, i’m done… some DVD marathon this weekend! i’ve seen:

Farenheit 9/11 – finally saw this one; tend to agree with the Message, but not with the Medium of Moore
The Road to Perdition – Hard for me to get into, but Jude Law’s part was creepily well-played
Bridget Jones’s Diary – quite liked, keen to read book now
About Schmidt – How Nicholson can make a scene out of blank staring is scary, but the plot didn’t leave him much else
The Bourne Supremacy – Not as good as the first; overextends itself a la Mission Impossible II
The Pianist – oh my… very very good; long, but not drawn-out . Brody deserved that Oscar
Bruce Almighty – enough already! Carey has shown that he can act, and moreover, be funny without being ridiculous; i guess this wasn’t a vehicle for those skills…
A Beautiful Mind – Very much liked. i think i like Crowe more and more all the time.
The Royal Tenenbaums – The set was the star of this one; such an incredibly rich visual feast!
Ali – Just couldn’t get into this one. i think i’m just too unfamiliar with Ali himself to suspend my disbelief and see past Will Smith.
Gladiator – unlike the other’s i’ve seen this one before; several times, in fact. Still a fave.

So many more DVDs here! Must stop myself from watching, say, all the Mad Max movies back-to-back, or getting into any of the LOTR special-editions. Loads of concerts on DVD too, though. Might round out the night (and the weekend) with something musical.