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Packing Light for a Long Journey | 45 comments (45 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: Packing Light for a Long Journey (4.00 / 2)
From what I had on board when I sailed across, here is what I'd add to your list:
  • The book(s) I never got to read (Proust, A la recherche du temps perdu).
  • A star atlas and navigation tables so as to learn sextant navigation. We had competitions to produce the most accurate positionning, and we learnt the stars in the process.
  • A waterproof camera, still and movie capable.

Pencil and paper were heavily used.

We decided not to give news to anyone, since when the system doesn't work, everyone worries.

Keeping batteries charged for electronics is a real pain unless you have wind/solar chargers. We had very little electronics; a wind vane steered the whole way.

Hot meals (pre-cooked at home) were much appreciated.

High quality waterproof 7x50 binoculars are a must. But you know that.

by balbuz on Wed Jun 13th, 2007 at 10:57:22 AM EST
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Re: Packing Light for a Long Journey (none / 0)
Proust, A la recherche du temps perdu
Yes, this is good! You should definitely bring some very long, very boring book you have never read but always felt like you ought to... At some point you might become desperate enough to actually open the darn thing.
by someone (s0me1smail(a)gmail(d)com) on Wed Jun 13th, 2007 at 11:05:56 AM EST
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Re: Packing Light for a Long Journey (none / 0)
You're right, I forgot to mention the star atlas. There will ample to learn how to use how to use a sextant, which will be great. The name of the navigation tables, ephemerides is already poetic...

There was some discussion as the books we would need... we agreed that we should bring one Dumas classic, for the flow of the narration, the epicness... but then, we don't really know what to bring. I have tried reading Man Without Qualities  4 times already, so that's going to be one. But after that... Advice?

We don't really plan on using the autopilot aside from having dinner altogether, so it's not what's going to use too much power. I plan on having the worst callouses...

How long did it take you? where did start from and arrived? How many were on board?

Rien n'est gratuit en ce bas monde. Tout s'expie, le bien comme le mal, se paie tot ou tard. Le bien c'est beaucoup plus cher, forcement. Celine

by UnEstranAvecVueSurMer (holopherne ahem gmail) on Wed Jun 13th, 2007 at 12:17:45 PM EST
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Re: Packing Light for a Long Journey (none / 1)
Today, I'd most definitely take along all of Julien Gracq. Why Gracq, that'd be the subject of a whole essay : for the same reasons I carried Proust the first time I crossed an ocean.
An ocean is not a sea, it breathes, it has a long rhythmic swell. And when you read, you want something that will carry you along the same ryhthm. And that is why Proust. And why Gracq, this prodigious creator, this perfectionist, who will polish each word till perfection; the subject of his novels is the language itself; litterature honed to perfection. Just right for an ocean passage.

There were, just like you, three of us. Getting into the watch rhythm was not easy at the beginning, and we would have hated having to steer : star gazing, reading, having a cup of tea, watching the boat ploughing through the waves, trimming the sails are more fun.

We started in the Mediterranean and arrived in the Carribean, stopping over in Gibraltar, Madeira and the Canaries. Took us maybe 3 weeks, I can't remember. This is one of the most treasured voyage I have taken.

by balbuz on Wed Jun 13th, 2007 at 12:47:51 PM EST
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Re: Packing Light for a Long Journey (none / 0)
Ah so you took the trade winds... I do envy you. There will be no flying fishes on our route.

The only book from gracq that i've read is... la forme d'une ville. I only remember the depiction of thursday afternoons that he would spend as a kid in the nearby countryside... I was way to young to understand what I was reading, but I see why he would be a great choice. I remember the rare pleasure of reading the same sentence over and over, for the sake of it and to thank him for his work.

I somehow look forward to this enless steering, to the moment where I won't have to think of what I am doing to do it. When it will be natural, like a second nature... BUt maybe gracq, musil, will make their force be felt....

Rien n'est gratuit en ce bas monde. Tout s'expie, le bien comme le mal, se paie tot ou tard. Le bien c'est beaucoup plus cher, forcement. Celine

by UnEstranAvecVueSurMer (holopherne ahem gmail) on Thu Jun 14th, 2007 at 08:32:57 AM EST
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Packing Light for a Long Journey | 45 comments (45 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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