January 08, 2007

• Memories of members of coastal communities, I should have added.
• There’s something I had done that I learnt it from an old Dane, and each time I’ve done it, it’s been right, and he told me it was burning the witches. And I said, “what’s this?” We were having a bum trip- I was mate on the boat and he was the skipper. And he said, “we’ll have to burn the witches- we’ve sailed with the witches onboard.” And I, “yeah, yeah.” So he showed me what you do. The whole crew have to be on the deck, we just stopped fishing, and he put a cloth dipped in diesel oil and he put it all the way around the top rail of the boat from stem to stern on one side, and then stern to stem on the other. And he said, “now, what you’re supposed to do is pour the diesel on the fish-room hatch,” he said, “obviously with it being a wooden boat, you can’t do that, so we’ll put a bucket with diesel and diesel rags in the thing,” and he got a stick and wrapped some dieselly rag on the stick and lit it and then he went all down one side where all the diesel was and lit it all the way around. You know, I mean, it was only, you know, it wasn’t a great bonfire or anything, and then he lit the bucket on the fish-room hatch and we all had to chant, “burn the witches, we burn the witches, we burn the witches, we burn the witches,” you all had to say it three times and then we put the little bit fire out and chucked the bucket with the diesel and the burning rags in over the side and we started to fish straightaway. This is the shocking truth behind climate change, pollution of the seas and over-fishing. Only when the last witch is burned will people realise that you can't eat old Danish sailors.
• Well, you can make them into a soup actually, but it's terribly salty.
• You should never mention the name of the boat within earshot of the boat until it’s launched. But, how do you know how good your boat's hearing is? How do you know how far away you have to walk before you can speak in whispered tones about your boat? Fishermen in Maine are deeply superstitious as well, moreso than any other people I've met. I suppose it might be because they depend on the sea to make a living, and it can seem like some crazed mythical being, like some fickle god that can bring abundance one day and death the next, and you'd better make sure you do what you can not to piss it off. I guess being uneducated and living in remote communities probably has something to do with being superstitious too. But mostly it's that bitch the sea.
• Yeah, we should get the French to demonstrate against the Oceans - which are a waste of precious Earth-surface for no concievable benefit and yet also provide a hiding zone for man's oldest enemy: the giant fire-breathing seahorse.
• The giant fire-breathing seahorse is my best friend, and informs me that your words wound him deeply. He's pregnant, though, and has been a bit moody. He also insists that Spongebob Squarepants is man's oldest enemy, and a fraud and a liar to boot. I think the giant fire-breathing seahorse needs to get out more, but really, where is there to go? The vocanic vents? Not in his condition, I can assure you.
• = volcanic
• Do not collude with the seahorse of ill-repute, I beg you.
• Never look a seahorse in the mouth. It's an ill wind that spoils many broths.
• Wonderful site, thanks Pleggy! I love those Coble boats.
• I told Mrs P she should make me a gansey as a token of her love and affection, but somehow I'm not sure she's going to do it.
• And here I was imagining that a gansey was some sort of goose. /edible waterfowl = interesting