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Ship's Library
What is the crew listening to? Who's reading what? Poetry, quotes, photos... these are just a few of the things you'll find in this section of the site.
What We Are Reading en route to Chile
Hannah - Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Robert - A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Kath - A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Frank - Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay
What We Are Reading en route to Tahiti
Frank: In Tasmania by Nicholas Shakespeare
Ben: At Risk: A Novel by Stella Rimington (ex-Head of MI-5)
Theresa: Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
Hannah: All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
Approaching South Africa | small [4.5MB]
The Maggie B approaching the coast of South Africa.
Approaching South Africa | large [7.45MB]
The Maggie B approaching the coast of South Africa.
What We Are Reading en route to NZ
Frank - Cochrane: Britannia’s Sea Wolf by Donald Thomas
Owen - The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes
Theresa - The Odessey Homer, the Fagles translation
Hannah - The Last Grain Race by Eric Newby
Bori - For Esme with Love and Squalor by J.D. Salinger
On the way to Tasmania
Books we are reading: Hannah is reading “Pride and Prejudice,” Bori — “The Soul in Tibet,” Owen — a Fremantle Historical Society publication called “The Globalization of Containerization,” and Frank — “Mayflower - Courage, Community and War.”
Recent DVD’s we have enjoyed off watch include “Cold Mountain” and “The Prairie Home Companion.”
Antigua Classic 2006 | large [4.5mb]
En route to Perth
Hannah is reading “To the Ends of the Earth — Journeys of the Great Explorers” by Balchin; Bori is reading “Tibetben a Lelek” (the Soul in Tibet) by Ferenc; Owen is reading Jared Diamond’s “Collapse;” and Frank is reading “Heavy Weather Guide;” “Weather for the Mariner” and the famous section 3909 from Bowditch that starts: “The passage of a tropical cyclone at sea is an experience not soon to be forgotten…”
The Ballad of Bouillabaisse
A street there is in Paris famous,
For which no rhyme our language yields,
Rue Neuve des Petit Champs its name is —
The New Street of the Little Fields.
And here’s an inn, not rich and splendid
But still in comfortable ease;
The which I oft in youth attended,
To eat a bowl of Bouillabaisse.
This Bouillabaisse a noble dish is —
A sort of soup, or broth, or brew,
Or hotchpotch of all sorts of fishes,
That Greenwich never could outdo:
Green herbs, red peppers, mussels, saffron,
Soles, onion, garlic, roach, and dace:
All these you eat at Terre’s tavern
in that one dish of Bouillabaisse.
Indeed a rich a savory stew ’tis;
And true philosophers, methinks,
Who love all sorts of natural beauties,
Should love good victuals and good drinks.
And Cordelier or Benedictine
Might gladly, sure, his lot embrace,
Nor find a fast day too afflicting,
Which served him up a Bouillabaisse.
American Sea Writing
I just finished a lovely book American Sea Writing edited by Peter Neill. It was given to the boat by my friend and future shipmate, Robert Farrar. It has pieces by obvious authors like Melville, Dana and Twain, but also lovely pieces by James Fenimore Cooper, James Agee, Eugene O’Neill, Langston Hughes and may other less likely. Well worth it!
Sailing Links
Articles
- Read pdf of Annie’s Hill’s story in the December 2007 Yachting World about Schooner Maggie B.
- More good reading: Sail Magazine
Sites
- Nautical architect who designed Maggie B: Nigel Irens
- Shipyard where Maggie B was built: Covey Island Boatworks
- Sails: North Sails
- Boat photographer in Aruba: Tim Wright
- Good reading: Boat International Magazines
- Our weather info resource: Landfall Navigation
- Our wireless network provider: Global Marine Networks
- Where we stayed in Bahia: Centro Nautico da Bahia
- Where we hope to stay in Cape Town: Royal Cape Yacht Club, South Africa
- A bit about schooners: Schooner Man
Music heard on board lately
We have a great sound system on, which includes a Sony CD/Tuner/XM Radio system with Bose speakers.
The XM Satellite Radio system worked great… up North. Not now.
CDs are great, and having friends send some is marvelous, but much of what we listen to is off my iPod which has days of music from our CDs and others.
We often have music at sea around noontime/lunch time, but other times, if we are going 24/7 it is inappropriate to put sounds on high when it might be someone else’s treasured nap time. In port certainly we have lots of music, especially at sunset.
Right now, some of our favorite music includes:
Yo Yo Ma €” Appalacian Journey
Pink Martini €” Hang on Little Tomato and Sympatique
Paul Simon €” Concert in the Park
Jimmie Buffett €” everything
kd lang €” Hymns of the 49th Parallel
The Neill Sisters €” everything
Nora Jones €” everything
Music from Garden State (the movie)
Late night watches have passed quickly when we’ve listened to NPR’s Driveway Moments CD which is the compilation of the best NPR audio stories, which range from 15-25 minutes. Marvelous for the Midnight to 4AM watch!
Take a tour aboard the Maggie B
Here’s a short slideshow tour of the Maggie B’s accommodations. Or, view the photos, with descriptions, here:
Welcome aboard!
En route to Fernando de Noronha: Pamuk, Steinbeck & “Le Grande Secret”
The Captain is reading My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk. Mounira and Nadia are reading Steinbeck’s A l’Est d’Eden aloud to each other and Valentine just finished “Le Grande Secret” which is about a great secret (an immortality drug).
En route to Brazil: McMurtry’s newest, Patrick O’Brien, & Pierre Desproges
The Captain just finished Telegraph Days by Larry McMurtry — perhaps partially for the pleasure of contemplating dry, dusty Tombstone, Arizona. Now I’m on my third re-read of Patrick O’Brian’s Blue at the Mizzen — trying to alternate sailing books with their land cousins. Nadia, Mounira and Valentine are reading aloud Pierre Desproges Chroniques de la haine ordinaire.
Photos from the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta, 2006
Check out these great photos of the Maggie B taken by Tim Wright at the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta, 2006. Just click the “Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta 2006″ link and search the list of boats for the Maggie B.
We hope to have these photos available on this site very soon — without the watermarks.
from “Ulysses” by Alfred Lord Tennyson
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoy’d
Greatly, have suffer’d greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour’d of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!
As tho’ to breathe were life. Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle–
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro’ soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil’d, and wrought, and thought with me–
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads–you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
’Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Sailing Alone Around the World and The Voyage of the Libredade by Joshua Slocum
Here’s the book we were talking about on Friday…
Service of Blessing for the Launching of the Maggie B — Lunenburg Harbour, NS
Prayer led Fr. Michael Mitchell
Heavenly Father, we rejoice that we can gather today to pray your blessing upon this schooner, the Maggie B. Help us, by our presence today, to rejoice in the skill and craftsmanship of all those who gave her life. Make us mindful of your unfailing care and protection. This we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Psalm 107: 1, 23 - 32 - read by Frank Blair
1: O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. 21: Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 22: And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing. 23: They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; 24: These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep. 25: For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. 26: They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. 27: They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end. 28: Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. 29: He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. 30: Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. 31: Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 32: Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
Word of Scripture - Mark 4:35-41
35: And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. 36: And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. 37: And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. 38: And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? 39: And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40: And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? 41: And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?
Prayer of Blessing - Fr. Michael Mitchell
Litany
For the safety of all those who go down to the sea for pleasure or for work, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.
For clean and abundant waters, and for ourselves as stewards of the seas, let us pray to the Lord. Lord have mercy.
Blessed are you, O God, whose Spirit hovered over the deep and filled it with beauty and all manner of living things. May the sea continue to teem with abundant life and pleasures. We pray your protection upon this schooner, crafted with great care and skill. Guide and protect it wherever it may sail. Bless all those who will sail within her, that they may know the joy of your saving hand and experience your power to calm all things.
Bless now this schooner, the Maggie B, that she may sail in safety and bring us all to the harbour of light and peace. We ask this blessing in the name of God the Father + the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Hymn: Eternal Father Strong to Save by William Whiting with music by John Bacchus Dykes | [listen]
Eternal Father, strong to save, whose arm hath bound the restless wave, who bidd€™st the mighty ocean deep its own appointed limits to keep: O hear us when we cry to thee for those in peril on the sea.
O Christ, whose voice the waters heard, and hushed their raging at the word, who walkest on the foaming deep, and calm amid the storm didst sleep: O hear us when we cry to thee for those in peril on the sea.
O Holy Spirit, who didst brood upon the chaos dark and rude, and bid the angry tumult cease, and give for wild confusion peace: O hear us when we cry to thee for those in peril on the sea.
O Trinity of love and power, our brethren shield in danger€™s hour. From rock and tempest, fire and foe, protect them wheresoe€™er they go: thus evermore shall rise to thee glad hymns of praise from land and sea.