Death, Ocean, Life

"Pau" I do not know personally but some of his friends who are still looking for him I do. Two days ago he was lost at sea while spearfishing around "baho", a shallow area between Aruba and Venezuela.

These Arubans have my respect. They live from the sea, in the sea. Many die by her. My friend Albert, who stopped going out to look for Pau told me how he himself barely survived a rough ocean two weeks ago, his boat sank after one engine quit working... thanks to his vhf mayday being heard by Venezuelan coast guard.  We shared that the probable loss of Pau is God's work; it could be any of us.

(Updated 202003031730: Pau's lifeless body has been found on the Colombian coast. Condolences to family and friends.)
(Updated 202003041010: News reports from Colombia do not validate that the body has been found. The three friends who went to get him were arrested by Venezuelan Coast Guard due to trespassing territorial waters. To be continued.)

Yesterday I sailed for the second time in 19 months. Hoping for a nice 15 knot easy sail the wind was nothing like that at all. 25 knots on the ocean. I felt fear from the start. Silly, but I have to admit it. What if the the mast comes down? What if the centerboard breaks off? What if I tip over? Out of fear and carefulness I sailed with jib and mizzen only. The main stayed rolled on boom.  Was it all the stories about the ocean taking lives that spooked me? Was it because of the long time not being on the ocean? What is important is that I went out anyway. Many reasons not to go out, family time, work to be done, visit friends and family... Still I pushed through and went out. Push the fear on the water and do not let it control me. 


The wind was very blustery and pushing the gunwale underwater at least 4 times, with so little sail up. But nothing dramatic happened. Vanessa never tipped over, the centerboard stuck to the boat, the mast did not budge and my fear has crawled back in its black hole. There were some awe inspiring moments out there, especially the intense blue of the ocean, the 7 different tortuga heads popping up and diving quickly at seeing my bow approaching, the big birds trying to lift a dead snapper out of the water... and the feeling of being pushed forward by Nature's power while looking at how beautiful it all is.

Webb is preparing some trip(s); different destinations and journeys start to appear in his mind.  I am silently awaiting to see and read about the solemn Louise ceremony.  The ocean is our temple.

Joy

Black swans surprise us. A virus disrupts recurring economic global cycles.

Politics become strange and useless.

Computers replace people's craft work. Internet punches holes in entire industries, from retail to publishing.

Humanism has become something we have to try and make time for.  When I look around I see most people staring down at a little screen in their hands, while the pelicans sail the wind looking for fish in the water, while the children ask for an ice cream.

Antarctica experiences the warmest day ever recorded. Gaia is working towards homeostasis.

Webb touched the concept of Joy. I am grateful he did. There is more than enough not to feel Joy. It is a choice, to feel Joy and to try and spread It around.

It is a Holy thing, Joy. Joy For Living.

True Joy removes addictions, lowers consumption, slows us down, lets us turn the other cheek, lets us think about others who are worse off... Could it be the Key to a better world?

To be continued.

One under the Sun

Webb Chiles posted about the movie 1917. The Camus quote in it grabbed me and does not let go.

As an organizational consultant, I am challenged how to transform humans so they produce less Waste. Deming stated that any well run quality minded organization produces on average 40% waste. That means that 40% of the Sales produced are wasted on non-value-added activities. This could have been saved if the organization would work towards minimizing this waste.  These are well run organizations which have a high degree of systems management. Imagine what most companies/organizations have as a potential for improvement... Oftentimes organizations waste more than half of their resources. The greatest, saddest and most impactful Waste is the inability to use the ability of people (https://blog.deming.org/2012/11/the-greatest-waste/).

Yet most organizations are stuck in a way of working which minimizes the performance of all involved in that organization. I see similarity between the WW1 and the current business world. Albeit people are not physically getting mowed down my machine guns these days but they are being metaphorically speaking "mowed down" by policies and paradigms which kill worker's pride and income. This eventually will hollow out countries and bury us in the mud of this struggle.



We are in the area between two S-curves where things are always chaotic. Before the WW1, in the 1850s, the square rigger sail-ships had to transport the coals to destinations because the steamers could not travel far enough. Eventually the sail-ships disappeared because the steamers' boilers got more efficient. Once this happened the industrial age was on a roll.

Today the centralized fossil fuel electric generators power us all, with the consequent detrimental effects of overburdening our planet with CO2 (Waste). According to some (read J. Lovelock) we are doomed and even if all CO2 emissions stopped today, we would still be drowned by Earth which is working to come back to a stable state.

Solar power and battery storage solutions are starting to spread. The central power provisioning still has the economic advantage due to scale and is (together with fuel-providers) actively pushing back for a fear of loss of power and income. Once the scales tip towards the de-central solar produced power the unit price for centrally produced kWh will rise exponentially. That will cause more investments in de-central solar powered homes and business. The coming decade will see this transformation for many countries. Factor into that the electrical vehicles and fossil fuels will become obsolete.

Hopefully we will be in time and have not all drowned yet.  We as humans working together may need more pain before we wake up to the fact that we need to think and act as One. That will make us want to eliminate the elements causing us to waste some much of our resources. These elements cost us too much. Most often the elements can be identified by faulty (management) policies and regulations.

Camus' quote gave me the understanding that which gives me the deepest satisfaction; to help another human being discover something new which transforms their world for the better. I believe I am not the only one who thinks like this; I had to learn something first from somebody else, as John Welsford says "an expert is a beginner with experience". On my own I know nothing.

History, Intentions and Hardware

I love the USA, especially Key West. This ship-town still has a lot of smells and looks of the old sailing era. Through all the cruise boats and tourists roaming the courses and waterfronts, the rough and salty past can still be seen and felt... it is not so far away. 

When not thinking about customer requests and programming algorithms, thoughts of sailing and boatbuilding just drift up in my brain. The small pram in construction did not get touched much this year. That will change the coming year. 

Beautiful oarlocks with matching sockets were bought for her already.

 

Anticipating some good (solo) coastal sailing trips with Vanessa require this safety equipment. I always felt the need for a good lashing system and this hardware will be made into one. The snapshackle will tie my harnass to it. It has an emergency detachment-pull-string. The two carabiners are for a 1 meter and a 2 meter section so I can short tie or long tie myself to a hardpoint on the boat. I just do not want to have to swim back to shore in case I fall overboard and have Vanessa nicely balanced. She will not turn into the wind automatically and keep on sailing to Panama.