Short Days.

There is a Madonna in a big square glass box beside the altar in the Sanctuario de N. Senhora de Nazaré, from which the priest took a delightful idea when preaching on All Saints’ Day. To paraphrase, he said that we all tend to live in glass boxes, and to see everything through an image of ourselves. He was saying we are all called to be saints, but this does not mean we have to be perfect; the important thing about the saints is that they let the divine light flood their box and drown out the image of self, which generally so preoccupies us and prevents us from seeing the other.

November came in with a couple of rainy days and a substantial fall in temperature, but it will recover as the sun comes out and the chilly north wind settles down. Anyway it’s just as well; I can do without too much heat as I strip the paint off Anna M’s planking and prepare to caulk it, now that Alec has pretty much finished the new ribs. The mild, dry weather is perfect; it’s hard to imagine a better climate for this kind of work.

Dave and Hazel in the Ros Alither, with their children Katey and Ruben, on their way south back to the Guadiana, have got a bit delayed here because their v-drive packed up; a brute of a heavy shaft fractured, but Alec got a replacement machined locally within two days. Sounds to me as if their prop was made for trawling, and they could do with a lighter one. Anyway their delay made for some very pleasant socializing, as did the presence for a couple of nights of Denis Dunne from Dublin, also heading for the Guadiana for the winter. Ah well, I shall hope to be able to spin down there for a while in the Spring! Meanwhile, Fiona is due here on Tuesday, so I'm looking forward to that.

Dave is an exception to most of the passing sailors in their grp or steel boats, who look at me struggling away and think I'm a barmy romantic. He lent me some lovely caulking irons, which was very kind indeed. Actually I'm enjoying the work on the whole, in a way I neither could nor would with those sensible modern materials. To go sea-faring with natural materials worked by your own hands, and in the tradition of the great men who sailed off to discover this world in wooden ships, is very special! Anna M will be 50 years old next year, and it is thrilling to be getting her into good shape again for that occasion. A long way to go yet, though, with the days getting short, and the sun setting just to the southward of the Ilhas Farilhões, though not the Berlengas. Their almost mystical presence in the West at sunset is most impressive!

Sorry there are no photos; some bug has got into my set-up that won't let me upload them.