Sailing and Philosophy

[Meriachee]

(And nuclear physics is unclear to me.)

@Kermit , it's a simple enough topic. Develop something even close to nuclear physics, and somebody doesn't like the 'me too" and gets all pissy, and they give you a huge concession to stop, which you say you do, but you don't really, and they give you a huger concession, and next thing you have enough dough to buy your own 747. The better question, how can this be applied to dock fees?

 

[JRacer]

Never throw anything over the windward rail that you don't want to see again!

 

[Kermit]

@Kermit , it's a simple enough topic. Develop something even close to nuclear physics, and somebody doesn't like the 'me too" and gets all pissy, and they give you a huge concession to stop, which you say you do, but you don't really, and they give you a huger concession, and next thing you have enough dough to buy your own 747. The better question, how can this be applied to dock fees?

Hmmmm. Maybe learning nuclear physics doesn’t sound so difficult after all.

 

[Kermit]

Never pee anything over the windward rail that you don't want to see again!

Or anything you don’t want spraying back on you. (I learned that the hard way.)

 

[Will Gilmore]

Kermit, it's like this: if you have a whole bunch of knights fighting on two sides and just one knight with his squire cooking stew in a big pot hung high in a tree from a long rope tied in a noose and all the other knights manage to kill each other, such that their squires have to take up arms in their stead and the one knight finished his stew, cooked in such an odd manner, enters the fray only to be taken down by the two other sides of battling squires, then the last squire has to abandon his stew in order to take up arms in his sire's stead. He will, of course, handedly hold his own until all the other squires are defeated. Thus proving that the squire of the high pot and noose is the equal of the sum total of the squires of the other two sides.
Easy peazy. Gee I'm a tree and there is a pot hanging high by a noose in me. All I need now are square roots and I'd be orthagonally grounded. Then, I'd always be right.

- Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Kermit]

Kermit, it's like this: if you have a whole bunch of knights fighting on two sides and just one knight with his squire cooking stew in a big pot hung high in a tree from a long rope tied in a noose and all the other knights manage to kill each other, such that their squires have to take up arms in their stead and the one knight finished his stew, cooked in such an odd manner, enters the fray only to be taken down by the two other sides of battling squires, then the last squire has to abandon his stew in order to take up arms in his sire's stead. He will, of course, handedly hold his own until all the other squires are defeated. Thus proving that the squire of the high pot and noose is the equal of the sum total of the squires of the other two sides.
Easy peazy. Gee I'm a tree and there is a pot hanging high by a noose in me. All I need now are square roots and I'd be orthagonally grounded. Then, I'd always be right.

- Will (Dragonfly)

Finally! An explanation that makes sense!!!!

 

[Leeward Rail]

Oh, whether we went to the North Pole,
Or whether we went to the South Pole,
Wouldn’t it all be fun?

Yes.. Oh heavens yes it would be.

@Will Gilmore Have you read the "What is sailing" column in the latest "Good Old Boat ?

 

[Meriachee]

@Kermit enough with the windward philanthropy. Let's have a beer.

 

[Will Gilmore]

Yes.. Oh heavens yes it would be.

@Will Gilmore Have you read the "What is sailing" column in the latest "Good Old Boat ?

I only just found out there was such a thing as "Good Old Boat". I'll have to look into it.
Does the article talk about sailing as a feeling, and atmosphere, a materialistic function of boat and sail vs the lifestyle and tradition of sailing. Which came first, the sailor or the sailboat?

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Leeward Rail]

To paraphrase.... It's asking "What is sailing?".. when "Sailing" seems to actually mean the preparation to sail... once you are trimmed.. the boat sails itself.... so are YOU still sailing ?

I only just found out there was such a thing as "Good Old Boat". I'll have to look into it.

I've had subscriptions to many Sailing magazines over the years. I currently only have one. Good Old Boat is fantastic IMO.

 

[Meriachee]

@Leeward Rail if you count the AP turning the wheel in response to the little thingee at the top of the mast moving around and telling the other thingee to turn the wheel, then yes. It is, admittedly, one of the few things that isn't regularly mutinous when there's no beer.

 

[Will Gilmore]

My favorite watch has always been the predawn watch. I love looking at the stars and watching them disappear, leaving only the few brightest, as the sky fades into that chromium greenish blue from midnight blue. The graduated light that shifts from dark overhead to lighter near the Eastern horizon, on a calm but breezy morning, brings to mind the imagined creation of the Cosmos.

I don't picture Creation as a "Big Bang", but more like an "Awakening". Sailing from the night into the day feels like an awakening. The last, brightest star to leave the Heavens in favor of the light upon the terrestrial world is Venus, the Morning Star. Venus is also the first star in the evening, the Evening Star. As a wandering star, however, her use as a navigation aid requires more information than Polaris or Sirius, for example. The ancients tracked her movements and kept meticulous records. It was Pythagoras who was given credit for the discovery that Venus was the same star seen in the evening as in the morning. When plotted out, her movements across the sky inscribed a pentagram, thus Venus also had a relationship with the "Golden Mean". The Pentagram was the symbol of the Pythagoreans and stood for completeness. That is how sailing feels. Sailboats are both a destination and the journey. Sailing is a state of being.

- Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Will Gilmore]

There is a story of a famous mathematician/philosopher and one of his students watching the Sun set. I wish I could remember who, but I heard the story first on the TV show "The Day the Universe Changed" by James Burke. I want to say it was Wittgenstein, but I think that is not correct. Anyhow, this philosopher was with a student watching the Sun go down, tracking its movement as it neared and slowly, but observably, disappeared below the horizon. The student commented on how astounding it was that the ancients believed the Sun went around the Earth. The older philosopher replied, "Yes, but imagine how it would look if the Sun DID go around the Earth."

You know, Euclid never recorded a postulate that contradicted spherical geometry by clearly stating that parallel lines never meet. His Parallel Postulate was controversial and he avoided using it. I'm guessing that most Mathematicians were also astronomers and many were navigators. Traveling great distances on the surface of the Earth would result in problems with Euclidean geometry because the curved surface of the Earth makes triangles with greater than 180 degs of total angles possible. Did Euclid know this or just sense it?

- Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Kermit]

I’ve often wondered... Since the earth is round and a straight boards seem flat, if you put an OMG size board that came in from space and then back out to space (tangent line), would the board look curved if you stood next to it where it touches the ground?

 

[Will Gilmore]

I think it would look curved. But then, you would have to ask, is curvature relative, given what you know about the OMG board and the Earth? Maybe it would only demonstrate that the Earth is curved by making the Earth look curved.

Modern science is incline to believe everything is relative, but there are a few universals in physics. At least one that I'm sure of.

- Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Kermit]

Modern science is incline to believe everything is relative, but there are a few universals in physics. At least one that I'm sure of.

Yep. Death and taxes. That’s really two unless you think of them as one. Sorta the same as grits and eggs.

 

[jssailem]

I think it would look curved. But then, you would have to ask, is curvature relative, given what you know about the OMG board and the Earth? Maybe it would only demonstrate that the Earth is curved by making the Earth look curved.

Is it the comparison of the curved earth to the straight board making it look curved?

Or is it the refraction of light bouncing off the board hitting the curved surfaces of your eyes playing tricks on your mind...

 

[Meriachee]

Curved surfaces.

 

[Kermit]

Is it the comparison of the curved earth to the straight board making it look curved?

Or is it the refraction of light bouncing off the board hitting the curved surfaces of your eyes playing tricks on your mind...

It’s the beer. I’m pretty sure @Meriachee will agree.

 

[Meriachee]

@Kermit , was there ever any question?