Before and After Darkness

There was darkness.

There was a kernel of light.

Ad infinitum.

Hello again. I don’t suppose you have ended up here wanting to read my year in review? You kind of have. During micropauses of clarity free cycles of brain processing power started on this piece about a week ago.

By now I think my interesting career choice is well established in the public metaverse. I have had a particularly challenging year which I initially thought of describing as a rollercoasting drunken dragon omnibus segueing from catastrophe to climax.

This all seemed a bit wordy even for me.

The year of the horse scarred me. Literally. During my birthday festivities I crawled into a door frame splitting my forehead open. This was the beginning of a far grander purpose. I flew around the world three times on fools errands. I visited dark and strange places. I met some interesting people. I revisited some old haunts with a fresh perspective.

Ultimately my bouts of darkness allowed some light to be let in. Light seems a bit mellow. Lasers are light aren’t they?

Perhaps my forehead being split open was my third eye being opened? It is shame that my fools errands had me drooling in jet lag induced torpor for so much of the year.

Magical September was when things got very introverted. Again I don’t think words can explain what was happening. I do like this picture though.

Now imagine feeling the full spectrum of that picture entering your whole being with a particularly wise Witch Dogtor sitting on your lap. This became normal. More things became interesting.

The year of the horse became one of balance. Very important when one tangles with the equine.

The darkness still comes. Just a week ago I felt excessively human about my whole situation.

Stranger still are the jolting laser bolt synchronicities which put me back in the saddle.

I look forward to seeing a lot of you in person next year.

Goat trumps Horse.

Peace.

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Gibraltar, Crosses and Crossing

You have probably heard of distasteful locations be described as the armpits of Europe/Africa/Gore ect. Gibraltar does not even rank in distasteful armpits. I would describe it as the discarded but fondly remembered toenail of the once powerful British empire.

Still, they are proud of it. Proud that it remains resolutely English in the face of Spain. Proud of its large and dizzying array of English comfort food. Food that ships stopping in Gibraltar must stock up on because Capitalism has not supplied unwholesome convenience food to every corner of the explored universe. It appears someone neglected to tell the English that their food is not in fact food. If you are English and reading this you now know.

We did leave Gibraltar for Bermuda in the end. Gods be damned. It has been a very peaceful crossing. We left Satellite television coverage after about 2 days. I take great pride in telling people I would rather watch a discarded toenail than Sky News. Sky News is Fox News with an English accent.

Recent changes in my neural pathways have left me finding the mainstream media about as palatable as English food. It has become clear that a narrow unhealthy narrative must be maintained how ever stupid it is. This commercially sensitive narrative is at odds with common sense.

Take Terrorism.

Personally I look at the almost monthly school shootings happening in America as acts of Terrorism and a far more real/quantifiable threat to America than ISIS.

A broad definition of Terrorism would say that these are not politically motivated.

I would then ask why are American politicians not politically motivated to sort out gun control?

When I got to spend time in Seattle. I got told about the history of gun control in America, bring your gun to work day and other quaint little oddities. These were all told to me by a perfectly sane American and it is all insane.

Guns are a constitutional right so the people can form Militia and do noble things. Where are these Militia? They were nowhere to be seen last month when this polar bear was put in jail for protesting against climate change.

Crazy.

Back at sea I have settled into the monotony that is an Atlantic crossing quite well. I have kept a healthy routine of meditation, exercise, crew mess and bridge banter. I have also performed many important technical tasks such as live streaming the Kiwis thumping Australia at the Rugby League into key areas where Australians are found.

We arrive in Bermuda on Wednesday. I will travel to New Zealand on the Thursday arriving on Saturday via America. I will not be struck down with Ebola. I will not be affected by Terrorism.

Create your own news.

PS.

I googled how to stop viewing a particular news site that I don’t want to read but I always end up reading. It’s like the KFC of news sites. Google took me to the particular website. Anyway like most things there is an app for doing this just self censorship.

Look up block site.

Please don’t block me, that would be a most strange outcome and feedback loop.

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Thor, Rage, Hurricanes and Horses

It became obvious last week that at some point I had angered the gods. Not the conventional gods but an ancient and fearsome pantheon of tyrants. In a continuing effort to get closer to my Swedish brethren I have been indulging in Vikings and watching Sweden play in the European football qualifiers.

The main protagonist in Vikings is a deliciously mischievous fellow named Ragnar. In between wanton pillaging, ruling and loving he takes a bit of time out to reflect with the earth tree Yggdrasil. Voyages to England are always fraught with Thor beating his hammer and raining lighting down upon his mast. Being that we have been in a shipyard you would think I would be well out of the way of Thor. It appears not.

I am currently working on a modestly sized Super Yacht. She is still quite large though as these photos attest. That is quite a big bulldozer pushing and hauling her into the water. Last Sunday we had a huge thunder storm roll through. This thunderstorm reminded me I am very much human.



I had an invertor fail on one of our UPS’s.
I had the power supply on a B&O television die
I had a CCTV camera go to Valhalla.
I had a raid hard drive fall in battle.

I took this all in my stride. When we went back into the water I had a very fraught couple of hours as parts of the ships network decided to not network as we went back on power. Given that Thor looks after electricity he surely is the God that good ETO’s should pay attention to.

On Thursday Loki visited and I entered a blood fuelled bezerking rage. One of our tenders has had some serious work done to it. The dash board was removed and I diligently removed all of the instruments so they could be reattached when the dashboard was returned with new leather. I did this in an upright and standing position generally a good place to work from. 

When the dashboard was returned the carpenters mounted it and and left the instruments upside down and back to front. This meant I had to work upside down and back to front. This was quite unnecessary and quite aggravating. A lot of blood surged to my head during this orientation. I have not felt such wanton desire for destruction and anger in a long time. I may have cursed so much that one of our deckhands was too scared to offer me help. After much bleeding, bleating and bashing I reassembled the dashboard and left the tender hoping it would spontaneously combust or sink, neither of them realistic but maybe Thor was watching.

It now appears Thor has been watching. Our trip across Atlantic has been stalled with hurricane season cutting a swathe through our intended paths. Every planned route is calculated and a new hurricane sprouts up to cause havoc. I take weather very seriously. The last patch of very bad weather I was in lead to a man over board. Vikings tended to leave men get washed out to sea but modern maritime convention takes a different approach and for that I am glad.

It is here I must wrap up. I have been noticing nice little events over the past little while. I like to call them synchronicities. My fear of horses is well documented. Earlier in the year I was quite aggravated with the year of the horse. It has thrown me off many a time. A month ago our neigbour offered to graze our land with a horse. Without even a blink I said sure. I got thinking a little while back that accepting a horse to coexist with me was the best demonstration of how far things have progressed. In the year of the horse I allowed a horse into my life and it and myself were glad.




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Thoughts and thinking

I felt it was about time to share some moments from the past week. It has been a week of learning and reintegrating into my double life.

Long plane flights are great opportunities for meditation as are Airports. Add public and not so public places when you have twenty minutes up your sleeve. I will never be early for anything again. Just making good use of time.

It was always going to be a little bit jarring coming into Barcelona and my job again. Luckily the good work I did at home has come with me. As I said before it hard to sum up my time at home in a couple of sentences. I did make an earnest attempt in the crew mess with one of the Deckhands. His reply was unintentionally insightful.

“So you’ve got weirder Dan”

I love this. May we all become weirder. We need more weirdness.

Anna; I regret that my time at home did not include more careful attention to washing pots and pans. I do believe in some way the universe was relaxing and contracting around me causing matter to become attached firmly to curved surfaces. I am glad I installed the horse mower to take care of the abundance of grass that was sprouting around the house.

I once tried to describe Barcelona to a couple of residents. There is so much decay/renewal/change the place seems to be in the flux of over ripeness. It is exactly three years from when I lived here for 6 months. It remains mind blowing. Such a bustle.

I have made two worthwhile excursions out of the walls of the shipyard. The first was to shoot the breeze with a Carpenter named Tudor. One thing I love about my friends is an understated ability to converse on a diverse range of topics. It is funny what pops up sometimes. Recently I have been reading about the Mayans and Tudor showed me some photos of a Mayan temple themed coffee table he had made. What a conversation piece.

My second trip was to visit an Ex Captain. He has a Pug and a new baby. Of course I asked about the Pug first. His Pug believes he is his equal and when he goes out for a walk and stops for a pint the Dog has to get on a bar stool so he can be at the same level. Self leveling Pugs I know much of these things.

There was another Captain with us and the conversation veered towards real estate. Both Captains had experienced varying degrees of unrestrained feminine peculiarities searching for homes. How proud was I to say that my Wife made a ranked spreadsheet of properties and we purchased the one at the top of our list.

It is a little strange being in Barcelona without Sam and Nancy. The are still in season mode and I fear I will not see them this year but we will see.

I have had two notable I am getting old moments in the last year. The first was discovering a large and prominent grey hair sprouting from my arm. The second was on Monday when I got my shipyard security card updated. I kept my photo from three years ago.

I have had challenges this week and I have felt old memories stir, fade and disappear. I think this is healthy.

Be a bit weirder ;-).

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Under a tree

I have been looking for a way to sum up the last couple of months. It has largely been a series of steps in multiple directions. I fear putting it all out there might cheapen its meaning but I do have a tale from today.

This morning I dropped our continental car off to be serviced. I then walked across town to meet some new friends. It takes a long time to make friends in small towns but I think I met some quality candidates today. They have a drone photography business.  He had a drone laboratory where he makes drones and he showed me a 3D printer which he uses to make parts with. I have been wanting a 3D printer for a long time but have not had a good enough reason with  WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor)

The car took a long time to be serviced. I drifted through Kerikeri which is painfully small when you are trying to while time away. I ended up in a library and spent a couple of hours with books and myself. I did a walk pass of the car and saw that it was still being worked on. I then went and did something which I can’t remember doing for a very long time.

I sat under a tree. It was not a tree that was sat under very often. The tree looked a bit lost.

Sitting under a tree might not seem that exciting but when you give it all of your attention it becomes very enlivening. It was a nice time to think about the last two months. What has transgressed and enjoy the fortified self I have constructed. Time spent looking within has given me new ways to look at the outside world. I feel more a part of the world again.

An hour or so later I went back to the mechanic. Its was there I had a brainwave. I need that 3D printer to print off the ridiculously expensive car parts our car seems to eat alive.

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Watch. Learn. Discuss. Share.

Press F for full screen.

The century of the self part 1(4).mp4 from Ayon on Vimeo.

The century of the self part 2(4).mp4 from Ayon on Vimeo.

The Century of the self – 3of4 There is Policeman Inside all our Heads sub ro from Cocolino on Vimeo.

The Century Of The Self – Part 4 from AJ Mekky on Vimeo.

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New Mux

I spent a couple of days selecting tracks and creating a mix. I played around with an idea I had a long time ago by choosing song titles which tell a story in themselves. Enjoy.

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A foot note

I made it to the Monastery. Would you believe I was afraid? It is about a 30 minutes drive away. I was a taken back by its beauty and peace. I had forgotten how neat it is to be around monks. I meditated and chanted with them for 1 hour. I then listened to some wisdom and shared how I had fallen into their company. I explained how hard and overwhelming I had found buying food for them at the supermarket. Afterwards we drank tea outside in the garden.

We shared stories and experiences. I told them of my very material job and other things. The moment of inspiration or clarity. The second monk said.

“Through meditation Dan, one day you may stand in a supermarket and be surrounded by the calmness that is the ocean.”

Magic. 

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Size Downing

Pull up a chair, I have. For the past few weeks I have been relishing the experience that a smaller yacht and workplace provides. I joined my latest home on the 6th of June. I had a late night learning the boats systems and to be honest I may have been a little bit tired from my time in Berlin(not sure why?). I commenced work on the 7th and our charter started at about 12pm the next day.

It has been a couple of years since I have worked on a conventional sized yacht. It has been a couple of years since I have worked during a conventional carter. I have always felt there is a sweet spot for yachting. Boats between 65-80 meters have enough crew that you can have a different conversation each day. You still get to dock in marinas as opposed to commercial docks. You also get to be in port a lot more often. So what has really struck me upon downsizing?

  • The boat is surprisingly big. It has everything one would need for a good charter. There is a lack of DJ equipment. I will remedy this.
  • We have a very good crew here. It is a very busy yacht and only really stands down when we are in a shipyard. One day turn arounds are the norm and as such everyone is very organised and efficient. We have to be.
  • I have learned everyones names inside a month. It took me a year to learn everyones names on board my last long term job. The revolving door on my previous vessel meant learning names was futile.
  • Smaller work places mean a wider scope of responsibilities. I have been doing things I haven’t done before. This is good.
  • Much more banter.
  • I am working with Swedes again. My hard fought for Swedish has come flooding back. Wait for the impending Swedish lesson. I have a choice and very useful phrase already.
  • Swedes are still funny.
  • Australians still swear a lot.
  • I have seen more sunlight here than I did in the whole of last year.
Our charter finished. We received thank you notes. I had forgotten normal people leave thank you notes when they depart a yacht. Our owner arrived a few days later. As is usual I cant say who it is. All I can really say is that they have some very illustrious friends.

I did have a notably expensive hair cut in Port Cervo. It was 100 euro all up including some hair product. I have not paid for a hair cut since an ill fated one in Viareggio where my nose was invaded and eyebrows mortally aggrieved. That was 4 years a go so I took the heinous price on the chin.

Today marks three weeks exactly three weeks until I begin my long commute home. It’s been a while. I am very much looking forward to it.

Finally? enjoy some photos. No post processing just looking outside a bit more.

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The Dark Ages

I can’t imagine to explain some of the weird/strange and downright preposterous behavior I have witnessed in the last few weeks. A culmination of things has made for a thunderously perfect storm. It wouldn’t be wise to speak of the most controversial items but let it be known I have been deeply agitated.

A slight digression. My most unpopular phrase at the moment.

“it is what it is”

Usually uttered by someone with less life experience than a premature mushroom spore.

It may be it but it is still shit and I do not accept it.

Troublesome owners would be my biggest concern here and I have experienced a few.

I am a deeply sensitive person and I refuse to accept the poor treatment of anyone. People turning a blind eye to abuse because it doesn’t affect them directly makes me very ANGRY.

“A rich pig is still a pig” and you can quote ME on that.

Anyway. I have been rescued from my predicament by my fairy god mother recruitment agent.

I have a new boat to join. I am downsizing but I think it is time. It is a boat coming home as well which for many yachties is a dream.

Time to live it again.

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