![\"\"](\"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/20201011_160123-225x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Being an old boat, Samsara<\/em> has a proper chart table \u2013 big enough for a full-size Admiralty chart folded in half. There\u2019s only one in there now \u2013 a rather battered copy of No. 2: British Isles (all the way from Brest to the Faeroes). It sits right at the bottom because I don\u2019t use charts much anymore.<\/p>\n Oh, there are some Imrays trapped forever behind the bookcase but why wrestle with an armful of paper when you can use a screen the size of a paperback.<\/p>\n Actually, I don\u2019t use paperbacks either. I have a Kindle.<\/p>\n \u2026or did have.<\/p>\n And this is where we get to the reason for looking in the chart table. I had searched it thoroughly several times looking for the Kindle which went missing towards the end of August.<\/p>\n As Cal, the villain in Titanic<\/em> said to his henchman: \u201cSearch the ship! There are only so many places she can be.\u201d<\/p>\n There were only so many places the Kindle could be \u2013 but believe me, I had searched them all (just as I searched for the brand new snatch block that disappeared three years ago). The chart table was such an obvious place for the Kindle that I searched it several times.<\/p>\n I was only looking in there today because I was after the big heavy shackle that was a key part of my invention for keeping the anchor buoy from wandering off when the tide falls. I took it off because I suspected it was helping the line to wrap itself around the chain. Since we may be here in Loch Shieldaig for several days more waiting for a wind without any north in it that I thought to while away an idle 20 minutes by rigging the shackle again just to make sure.<\/p>\n But where was the big heavy shackle? I only took it off a couple of days ago. It must be somewhere. Everything has to be somewhere\u2026<\/p>\n And the obvious place \u2013 the place where things get put if you don\u2019t have a hall table or a fruit bowl, is the chart table.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what I found in the chart table:<\/p>\n Seven cigarette lighters – six of them working (I now have push-button ignition on the cooker).<\/p>\n Two rubber erasers<\/p>\n A micro-SD card<\/p>\n Watercolour notebook with only the first six pages used.<\/p>\n Watercolour paintbox (dried up).<\/p>\n CO2 cylinder that doesn\u2019t fit any of the lifejackets on board.<\/p>\n A very organised little box containing the nail scissors I had been looking for in my spongebag, half a dozen ballpoint pens including a Mont Blanc that spent a couple of years in the bilges and will never be the same again, a fitting for the Aries lift-up gear which is no longer needed but which I plan to give away if ever I meet someone who could use it, a packet of elastic bands (they could come off the shopping list).<\/p>\n A pair of sunglasses with one lens missing.<\/p>\n A piece of plastic from which I cut a square to help with the fitting of the cooker gimbals and which might be needed again in similar circumstances.<\/p>\n Instructions for fitting the CO2 cylinder which doesn\u2019t fit any of the lifejackets.<\/p>\n A saxophone reed (I play the clarinet).<\/p>\n Wallet.<\/p>\n Spare wallet (for replacing lost wallet when it gets lost).<\/p>\n Bicycle bell (still to be fitted).<\/p>\n A pair of fittings for battery terminals.<\/p>\n A pair of drawing compasses.<\/p>\n Various dried-up notebooks.<\/p>\n Instructions for the radar which I use so rarely, I have to look up how to work it each time.<\/p>\n Piece of teak that split off the toe rail.<\/p>\n Envelope of receipts.<\/p>\n Plastic bag of \u201cimportant items\u201d \u2013 passport, cheque book etc.<\/p>\n Similar plastic bag of instruction manuals that seem get consulted regularly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2026 and\u2026would you believe it\u2026 The Kindle, accusingly displaying the \u201cbattery absolutely flat\u201d symbol.<\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t believe it. I shrieked in delight. I danced around the cabin. I hugged the little block of microchips to my breast. I kissed it.<\/p>\n You must understand the significance of this moment. For more than a month, I had been fretting \u2013 wondering if should buy a new one. After all, it was the third that I had lost. The original \u2013 the one Tamsin gave me for my birthday, I lost I can\u2019t remember where. The second (all singing, dancing and waterproof) which she gave me for Christmas to replace the first one, I left it on a train not three months later \u2026 and now this, the third, which I bought second-hand on eBay because the whole business was getting expensive\u2026<\/p>\n And there it was, in the chart table all the time. It sits opposite me now, it\u2019s little yellow charging light, a beacon of hope for all things lost.<\/p>\n \u2026and sure enough, I found the shackle where I had put it, on the shelf beside the navigator\u2019s seat, underneath all those useful bits of 3mm line with bowlines tied in one end.<\/p>\n As for the snatch block\u2026 well, we\u2019ll just have to wait and see. Everything\u2019s got to be somewhere. There are only so many places\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Being an old boat, Samsara has a proper chart table \u2013 big enough for a full-size Admiralty chart folded in half. There\u2019s only one in there now \u2013 a rather battered copy of No. 2: British Isles (all the way from Brest to the Faeroes). It sits right at the bottom because I don\u2019t use … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1304"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1306,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304\/revisions\/1306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}