“From May to August of 1988 their home
was ‘Grace O’Malley’ while they took a sabbatical from ordinary life. One
Summer’s Grace is the memoir of that adventure.
As well as relating the ups and downs of family life in a confined space with a sense of humour, she also relates some interesting historical tales and gives detailed geographical descriptions of places visited during the trip.
It was not an easy journey as living aboard a small boat is hard work even for a full adult crew, but with two children aboard who made work but were unable to reciprocate by helping out much it was doubly hard. So it is no surprise that there were moments during the voyage that Libby and Paul had severe doubts about what they were attempting to achieve.”
My favorite passages:
“I felt ashamed at my need to rush and
regiment the children, and wished – as often, but always vainly – that I was
better at simply sitting and looking at a harbor, without needing to dash
around it, climb it, row it, meet half its inhabitants and/or write about it. I
am not a good mother to three-year-olds; I am fine with small manic babies and
fine with over-fives; the pace of three drives me insane.” (pg 139)
“I reflected that perhaps children are
never driven to travel and adventure the way adults are, because they are still
capable of seeing the endless spaces of their own front lawn and the eternal
mysteries of the apple tree outside the window.”(pg 149)
It’s hard to believe it’s been 45 years since “Jaws” came
out, and even harder to believe that until fairly recently I had never seen it.
I’m not big into gore and horror films, so I was never interested in seeing it,
but figured after hearing so much about it, perhaps it was time to put my prejudices
aside and finally give it a watch.
Like it says in the 20 fun facts (see below) about the
movie, you don’t actually see the shark (which was nicknamed Bruce, after
Speilberg’s lawyer) until about 2/3 of the way into the movie, so they
certainly tried to build up the suspense. I expected and would have liked a
little more action a lot earlier in the film, but that’s probably due to more
modern expectations from the way movies tend to be made today.
Jaws trivia:
Most fans know that the famed New England
island, with its deep offshore waters and sandy beaches, was the real-life
version of novelist Peter Benchley's fictional Amity Island from the book. What
they might not know is that the location scout planned to check out nearby
Nantucket Island instead, but stormy weather forced his ferry to Martha's
Vineyard, where he discovered the many natural features that lured the
production there.
The story's nemesis — a great white shark
that attacks and terrorizes the fictional community of Amity Island — doesn't
appear on screen until one hour and 21 minutes into the two-hour movie.
·
No one wrote the movie's most famous line -
"You're gonna need a bigger boat,” uttered
unforgettably by Roy Scheider, was improvised by the actor on the day of
shooting.
Then recently we were watching an episode of our currently
favorite sitcom, “Community” and the plot partially revolved around a one day sailing
class that several of the characters were taking. The class was held on a real
boat, but since the college was miles and miles away from the ocean, it was situated
in the parking lot instead.
Lee Majors (aka Steve Majors, “The Six Million Dollar Man”)
played the instructor, and the four students who were in the class were Pierce
(Chevy Chase),
It was interesting watching that episode since all the
commands Shirley (who was made captain) had to give reminded me of all the
technical jargon Libby wrote about when discussing her family’s journey around
Britain in their yacht. It also gave me an appreciation for how difficult it
must be to develop sailing skills, and how probably much of it is gained from
experience.
The most recent program we’ve streamed, which I selected
because I thought it would be appropriate, was “The Grand Tour Presents:
Seamen.” This was a 90 min special starring Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and
Richard Hammond, aka the three gearheads who starred in BBC’s “Top Gear” for
over a decade, and usually star alongside cars, so putting them on the water in
boats was a bit of a departure.
 |
| Richard Hammond's boat is the white scarab |
Of the three boats purchased by the trio, Richard Hammond’s
certainly had the most potential for fun since it was designed to literally
skim across the waves (hence, why those were used so frequently in shows like “Baywatch”
and “Miami Vice,” which RH makes reference to). However, Hammond at the beginning
protests that being from Birmingham, which is miles and miles from the sea, he
hates boats. But we later see him enjoying himself when he races Jeremy down
the river, and wins (which he should have since he definitely had the more
powerful boat).
Jeremy Clarkson definitely splashed out the most spending a
cool 100,000 pounds on the PBR* he had specially designed for the series. He
explains that not many were saved after Vietnam, so he had no choice but to
have one recreated for the program. To
Jeremy’s credit, he did use the program to occasionally provide a few brief
history lessons teaching us about various people involved in the Vietnam War
and a brief mention of Pol Pot and the infamous movie, “The Killing Fields.”
* Patrol Boat, Riverine, or PBR, is the United States Navy designation for a small
rigid-hulled patrol
boat used in the Vietnam War from March 1966 until the end of 1971. They
were deployed in a force that grew to 250 boats, the most common craft in the River Patrol Force, Task Force 116, and were
used to stop and search river traffic in areas such as the Mekong
Delta, the Rung Sat Special Zone, the Saigon
River and in I Corps, in the area assigned to Task Force
Clearwater, in an attempt to disrupt weapons shipments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrol_Boat,_River
The program contained the usual antics of the trio from
Jeremy and James changing the name of Richard’s boat under the cover of
darkness, and Jeremy constantly bumping into other boats due to lack of control
over steering. There were also the usual snafus like their boats getting grounded
due to the low level of the rivers (attributed to Global Warming, which Jeremy
also mentions several times in the program).
However, the series ends on a
climax when the trio has to navigate the China Sea to get to the finish line.
Though they had tried to avoid the sea, a series of wrong turns meant that’s
exactly where they ended up. Since the sea seemed fairly calm at first, the trio
were lured into a false sense of confidence. So they set out across the sea and
soon discovered they were way out of their depth, and none of their boats were
designed for such volatile water.
 | |
| Richard Hammond's & Jeremy Clarkson's boats on the China Sea |
Next up: a viewing of “The Perfect Storm.” (possibly)
P.S. If anyone is interested, SHARK WEEK,
television's longest-running, and most anticipated summer event returns
with bigger sharks and bigger breaches on Sunday, August 9 and continues
through Sunday, August 16.
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