Alone at Sea : The Adventures of Joshua Slocum (9780385674072) by Spencer Ann

Author:Spencer, Ann [Spencer, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-385-67407-2
Publisher: Random House Digital
Published: 1998-08-17T04:00:00+00:00

9

Ports of Call

Though I do not feel oppressively lonely on my solitary voyage, I am always glad to get to port. I am, paradoxical as it may seem, really a sociable man.

— J.S., to a reporter

The hope of landfall sustains a sailor on a long ocean passage. But keen as he is to see it, the appearance of land on the horizon may disappoint more than excite, and bring the realization that the destination may not have been why he first set sail.

The sheer scope of Slocum’s voyage meant that he could sail with greater freedom than most sailors: the occasional landfall wouldn’t overshadow his broad vistas. The Spray was his home, and his address was wherever she happened to be at the time. Circumnavigation was his definite goal, but he felt no hurry. He had no prearranged schedules to live up to, and no one was waiting in port for him. He often sailed as the spirit moved him, even when he had been at sea for extended periods. After sailing for days to make an island in the South Pacific, he changed his plans close to landfall. Most people would have been ready to make port after spending more than a month at sea. Not Slocum, who was caught in the rhythm of a good passage and was reluctant to break it to go ashore. “To be alone forty-three days would seem a long time, but in reality, even here, winged moments flew lightly by, and instead of my hauling in for Nukahiva, which I could have made as well as not, I kept on for Samoa, where I wished to make my next landing. This occupied twenty-nine days more, making seventy-two days in all. I was not distressed in any way at that time.”

Aboard the Spray, Slocum was a floating citizen of the world. Any port was home for as long as he wished. With each landfall he entered a completely different world. He sailed into scenes that were exquisite in their beauty, and others just as remarkable for their bleakness. He sailed into pristine harbors with sun-bleached cliffs, steep grassy slopes, volcanic rock formations, and white beaches. Although a seasoned world traveler, some of the changes startled him. On sighting the Keeling (Cocos) Islands after twenty-three days at sea, he recalled the excitement of spotting a coconut tree sticking out of the water directly ahead of him: “I expected to see this; still it thrilled me as an electric shock might have done. I slid down the mast, trembling under the strangest sensation; and not able to resist the impulse, I sat on deck and gave way to my emotions. To folks in a parlor on shore this may seem weak indeed, but I am telling the story of a voyage alone.”

A sailor of experience and sensitivity knows the signs that land is approaching. Slocum would have noticed the smell of land, often described by people who have made long passages as the scent of vegetation. Or he would have noticed certain seabirds overhead.

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