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Posted: 22-09-2013 21:50 Post subject:

As a kid in high school I discovered I loved to read. That was a personal discovery for me because I consistently HATED reading anything assigned to be read by a teacher. Teachers had an uncanny talent for selecting the driest, most boring drivel for us to read, so I generally eschewed reading assignments. But I did love reading adventure stories and I discovered authors like Ernest K. Gann, Thor Heyerdahl, Sir Francis Chichester and others. One of the books I devoured was Sailing Alone Around the World, by Joshua Slocum. I remember a passage in that book where he described being sick and in a terrible storm. He looked up to see a stranger steering his boat through the storm. The stranger introduced himself as one of Christopher Columbus's crewmen from aboard Pinta. He advised Slocum to remain below and get some rest and he'd take care of the boat during the storm. Slocum decided if he was so bad off that he was hallucinating, he'd BETTER stay below. Next morning Slocum woke up and the storm was mostly over. His boat was still on course. I did a search for that passage and found more information on it. It's a fascinating story!
http://suite101.com/a/joshua-slocums-phantom-pilot-a249034

Posted: 23-09-2013 06:41 Post subject:

Reading your post has just given me shivers down the spine! Excellent!

Posted: 23-09-2013 08:36 Post subject:

Strange how almost every round the world yachtsperson seems to become violently ill during their voyage. Maybe they are not very good at cooking and get food poisoning or they forget the Fairy Liquid and so had dirty plates.

I am fascinated that a sailor from the The Pinta was able to operate a modern day yacht, surely it is a bit like the operator of a horse and cart being able to drive a car.

Posted: 23-09-2013 08:37 Post subject:

Posted: 23-09-2013 09:08 Post subject:

Excellent yarn! Smile

Posted: 23-09-2013 17:05 Post subject:

Actually, a modern day sailboat isn't really much different than the ships of Columbus' time. The wind acts on the sails and propels the boat through the water. The sails are controlled the same today as they were back then, with halyards and sheets. The rudders of today work exactly like they always did.

As I recall from reading Slocum's story so many years ago, Slocum never actually believed there was really a ghost steering his boat. He chalked it up to a hallucination. He was, however, a bit nonplussed about still being on course after the storm. So he apparently had a tiny seed of doubt about the hallucination. It was a great sea story, though. yeay