The Arrival of Good Winds

By Nolan Walker, Trainee

May 1st, 2014

It starts with a flicker of a breeze & builds with each passing moment like some great sighing body and then the wind arrives, filling the belly of the sails with a much needed anecdote as perhaps previously lazy staysails & headsails began to breathe ecstatically, flogging around in their surprise. You can almost feel the excitement of the ship as she hurtles herself forward under your feet, the deck sometimes shivering ever so slightly as she bounds through an eager swell. At times her rigging begins to strain with the new found pressure and the occasional call to take in t’gallants, royals, and fore and aft sails rings out as she makes her way headlong under topsails and courses (perhaps a staysail or headsail as accompaniment). Behind the helm you can almost feel the water moving across her rudder as the freshening breeze sends her along towards the vastness of that endless horizon. A faint sound of whistling can be heard intermittently amongst the rushing of the wind as it slides past your ears and you realize that it is within the rigging, as if the ship herself is whistling in her delight. There is nowhere else you can get such an immense and exciting feeling as snagging a good wind under sail surrounded by the edge of the world as, by and with your own hands, you make your ship dance along the ancient face of the ocean.

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