Into the Baltic // Andy's Essay
On the Wind Sailing
Andy Schell
4.8 • 593 Ratings
🗓️ 8 August 2014
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
#42. This week's essay Friday is an excerpt from the Log of Arcturus, which I keep onboard the boat. Written by hand, as it's happening, the log is a diary of sorts about our travels. This was written in August of 2012, almost exactly two years ago, during the 3-day passage from Malmo on Sweden's southwest coast to Visby, on the island of Gotland. It's good timing, as starting after work today, we'll be on vacation for the next three weeks, heading this time out of the Baltic and essentially retracing our steps from this here trip. It's fun to read what I've written and see what goes on in my head on those late, solo night watches. Hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed reliving it!
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, welcome to... Sorry. |
| 0:02.8 | That's okay. |
| 0:04.6 | Hey, welcome to 59 degrees north with Andy Schell. Enjoy the show. |
| 0:10.1 | Greetings, greetings. Welcome back to the 59 North Sailing podcast. I'm your host, Andy Schell, |
| 0:14.4 | and this is episode number 42, another essay episode for your Friday Delight. |
| 0:19.4 | Before I get into it, I just wanted to share something |
| 0:21.6 | from one of my favorite books. This is just the very first page, almost before the intro, |
| 0:27.1 | of, I'm saying this terribly wrong, I'm sure, but Fereng Mates book called The Finely Fitted Yacht, |
| 0:34.0 | volumes one and two. This little book sits on our shelf on Arc Tourist |
| 0:38.4 | permanently and is just full of really great little ideas on how to improve the |
| 0:42.2 | boat and make neat little stuff from cup holders to tables to all sorts of |
| 0:47.6 | little stuff and it's filled with quite a bit of humor as well. But anyway, |
| 0:51.8 | the first couple pages I'm just going to read briefly here his |
| 0:54.8 | introduction. Okay, here's Ferenck Mate. Philosophically, there is little joy in creating junk. |
| 1:02.9 | Boats live a long time, and so do people, and so does the spark of pride in a lovingly crafted |
| 1:07.4 | piece of wood or canvas. Have patience. Enjoy every step. You may never get |
| 1:12.4 | the chance to do it again. Specifically, start big. Begin with the project that requires the |
| 1:19.0 | largest piece of material and you'll definitely be safe. For then, if you miscut or misdrill or |
| 1:24.1 | misthink, you can always pretend that you are actually working on the next size-down object in the first place, and you wanted a smaller piece of whatever anyway, and you're |
| 1:32.0 | not really as big as stupid as the puzzled onlookers think you are. Of course, there are |
| 1:37.1 | limits. If you begin with a piece for the boom gallows and ended up with eight pounds of teak-toothpicks, |
| 1:43.6 | stop and reflect, then yank out a chunk |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Andy Schell, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Andy Schell and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.