Nothing like having the Categories, Tags, and Archives on both our blogs not working properly and no idea of what to do. These are the sorts of problems that usually happen 1. When David is gone or asleep (it was 3 am when I discovered this problem) and 2. Shortly after David has been messing around with the virtual private server (VPS). Yesterday he restarted the VPS which hosts the blog and it seemed to be fine all day. It just waited until the middle of the night to have a hiccup. When I told David about the symptoms of our blog he muttered something about “permissions” and within 5 minutes of getting up, David fixed the problem. Our VPS acts as our email server, web server, and a sort of drop-box that we put in place prior to the existence of services like Dropbox.com. We used to joke that it resides in India but now know that it’s actually sitting in a server farm in Irvine, CA. Now I just need to find out about those “permissions” …
Foggy Lessons
Herb Payson said “I loved cruising the coast of Maine . For one thing, it helped me conquer my fear of fog. Not that I have learned to feel secure in the fog, but at least I have learned how to grope without panic.”
Reading the above, I am reminded of a very foggy day of sailing when we placed yellow ribbon tell tales on the shrouds. That day, the fog was so thick that I couldn’t even see the wind indicator high above us on the foremast.
It is much nicer to simply stay at anchor during a foggy day. Below, at San Miguel and at Drake’s Bay anchorages.
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More Tips From The Ship’s Cat
Beryl has decided to share a few more secrets of the highly successful ship’s cat. The next thing she’d like to share is the importance of charts and navigation for the ship’s cat. Command and control is all about keeping on top of the available information. In the case of a boat, that means sitting on top of the chart table when it is closed up with charts inside. There are two approaches. Above, we have the “use-the-table-to-stand-a-lookout-kitty” approach and below, we have the “I’m the cat in charge of the charts and you’re not opening this table until I say so.” approach. Knowing which approach to use is what sets the highly successful ship’s cat apart from the rest. This just can’t be taught; you’ve got to figure it out on your own.
When the chart table is open, sitting on key charts or tide tables is a really important thing to do. Don’t just go straight to the largest most obvious looking chart. Watch the human watch stander’s eyes. Make sure that you’re sitting on the thing they’re most interested in looking at. In the photo below, a lesser experienced ship’s cat might have sat on the chart book when the really important bit was the atlas and tide tables next to it.
The ship’s cat must be diligent and stand this post as much as possible. Day and night. When a human is standing anchor watch, they may well be doing planning at the chart table. Here, the experienced ship’s cat manages to sit on top of the tourist attraction map while blocking view of the wind speeds on the computer instrument. Since high winds were what was keeping the human watch stander up all night, this is quite an important success for the ship’s cat to stay in-the-way and thus in-control of all the information.
And, if the charts happen to move from the table to say…the seat beyond the table? This can happen when the humans begin to think you’re just interested in the chart table itself. Here they’ve moved the chart and left the table completely free for the ship’s cat. Well, move! and sit on top of the charts on the seat! Location is key and it is good to see the human crew realizing that you, as ship’s cat, deserve a high level command-and-control position! We always have to remember though that information is even more key than location. The human crew needs to know that you, the ship’s cat, are on top of all the pertinent information at all times!
Beryl will have more tips for you at a later date. In the interim, practice what you’ve learned.
