Other PicoMicroYacht

Monday 25 April 2016

'A Calm Sea and a Prosperous Voyage' for PicoMicoYacht circumnavigating the Isle of Wight starting next Friday?


PicoMicoYacht prefers a calm sea and this means anxiously looking at the weather charts for the start of the voyage round the Isle of Wight this Friday. 

But there seems to be low pressure forecast over the British Isles and a cold front - but then again the isobars are not too close - so who knows what will happen?
But then the wind is forecast to be 26 knots at St Catherine's Point, south of the Isle of Wight, too much for PicoMicoYacht - but who knows? It is too soon for accurate forecasts.

I am hoping for 'a calm sea and a prosperous voyage, but it might be possible on Friday.

By the way 'A calm sea and a prosperous voyage' comes from two poems by Goethe, set to music by Beethoven and then Mendelssohn.  I always thought the calm sea would produce the prosperous voyage, but I was wrong.

The first poem is about the calm sea before the days of steam being not such a good thing

A calm sea:

Deep stillness rules the water
Without motion lies the sea,
And sadly the sailor observes
Smooth surfaces all around.
No air from any side!
Deathly, terrible stillness!
In the immense distances
not a single wave stirs.

In the second, the wind gets up and the voyage is prosperous.

A prosperous voyage:

The fog is torn,
The sky is bright,
And Aeolus releases
The fearful bindings.
The winds whisper,
The sailor begins to move.
Swiftly! Swiftly!
The waves divide,
The distance nears;
Already, I see land!




Ludwig van Beethoven - Meeresstille und Glückliche Fahrt

'A Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage'