The waves wash in, a storm out to sea. How do the rocks survive at all? .... There's a disturbed and oppressive world out there that one would rather not think too much about, but which nonetheless tugs at everyone's nerves and saps our energy.... Myself straining to jump through the last hoops for getting the old boat out next year, and wondering whether we shall be even more lashed by world events totally beyond our control than we are already, and where the Nazaré Project will stand then! But how does one dare to hold out any hope at all when so many people are suffering so much?
Probably most of us know people, old and too frequently young as well, who one way or another are cracking up under such strains. On the personal level as well as the macro, it seems like a race against time, to see if we can get to some sort of sanity and viability before the whole situation is lost; and that's rather the way it is with the Anna M.
Where is that crucial tipping point, between where one can reasonably expect to turn something round, even an old car, and where one just has to write it off? Perhaps this is the crucial human dilemma, and one just has to hope that one knows how to respond and decides correctly when each crisis comes up! We all like to think we are rational, but how inadequate our reason is! And as for when we reach that final crisis which we all have to confront sooner or later.... But then perhaps we don't have to, and they are right who spend the best part of their time trying to ignore and avoid ghastly reality!
Still, it is by confronting all these crises that we grow, and there is no other way. For example, in the midst of his many crises, it is interesting to see how Donald Trump has grown. He was all over the place in his first term as President, about covid and the vaccines for instance. One moment he was calling the pandemic a hoax, and the next he was boasting about how promptly he rolled the vaccines out, though one had the impression he was only playing politics in the latter case. Now he seems to have acquired some ballast, especially since Bobby Kennedy signed up to his campaign. His courage, resilience and determination have also been impressive. I could not have imagined, four years ago, that I would now be hoping for his election.
President Biden lost me in the moment he stood up and said 'I promise you, the vaccines are safe and effective'! And that's something the Dems are not going to retract, either, no matter what evidence emerges to the contrary. They have revealed themselves as fully paid up members of the global corporate mafia. On the other hand, the Trump clinched matters for me with his answer to a smart MSM interviewer who asked - 'Do you want Ukraine to win the war?' - 'I don't think in terms of winning wars. I just want to stop people dying!'
'Foolish old man with his simplistic populism!' the 'sophisticated' types will say, and the possibly more honest of them may go on to say 'Too bad about those people dying, it's the National Interest that counts etc. Forget about morality! The only reality is Power. It's them or us. Too many people on the planet anyway....' In both the cases of the war and the vaccines, this is sadly the logic of the Dems, with Harris as a decorative mannequin to veil the reality with progressive, 'philanthropic' ideas. Pity she wouldn't go away and read 'War and Peace' and a few other great Russian books, but she seems to be proud of her ignorance of Europe and our literature. Meanwhile the authoritarianism and disdain for freedom of speech of 'the Left' stands revealed in all its horror!
So, the race is on. Either way, the chances are, for the time being, that we shall shamble on through our crises, hopefully even our failures will contribute to a final victory. Things will get more and more messy, until and unless we manage to order our lives and our societies with new priorities and ways of working that do not depend on the 'Powers', the big 'industrial complexes', those that would enslave us as isolated minions to Big State and consumerism.
Trump may be able to turn things round somewhat, Harris definitely won't; meanwhile they keep us entertained with a good morality play, but let's remember that it's in our own lives that we can really make a difference! The worse the level of threat, the more urgent it becomes for us to build resilience and autonomy. The greater the looming horror, the tighter we must stick to bright dreams. As we see death coming nearer, the more we must polish up our hope; and for all its elusive nature, we may find that hope does burn brighter with age! At all events, let us keep our heads up, and cherish beautiful little things!
So anyway, the Anna M is becoming pleasant to live in again, the carpentry is pretty well finished, and I'm hoping Alec will have the electric motor running by Christmas and she will be in commission again next year. We have clarified the structure of the whole Nazaré Project, which is based on these three legs:-
a) Aston, Lammas Research and Development (ALRD) is the investment path for the commercialisation of the prototype. As of now it is an aspirational company to be registered in Ireland, though funds and time have already been invested by Alec Lammas to the value of €50,000 (via NazaréNautica) and Joe Aston to the value of €5,000 (not counting approx €65,000 in Anna M - see below).
b) Alec’s company, NazaréNautica, provides the workshop and engineering services in Nazaré, Portugal, which are currently producing the prototype.
c) The 13.6m schooner Anna M has been completely renovated and prepared for the installation of the prototype. She will be used as a test-bed and demonstration vessel, while sailing the West
coast of Europe showing the motor off and selling it. It is intended to refine the concept to the point where newbuilds will incorporate it, for both leisure and commercial fishing purposes, and eventually to transfer ownership of Anna M to a Gannetsway Sailing Association (GSA).
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I welcome feedback.... Joe