On board Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam we have an eccentric man, our C.O.O (Chief Omens Officer) Adrian. Since I joined the boat in Airlie Beach, the movements of the boat have been shrouded in the kind of superstition I thought was long gone from the modern world of sailing.
Our first omen was the alignment of stars and planets and we’ve had plenty more since that, with some more difficult to comprehend than others, and all of the crew getting involved in this ritual omen collection at some point.
A couple more to note were the flying fish that landed in the washing up bowl in the galley after diving through the galley hatch and which was promptly returned to the sea. This was allegedly a test by King Neptune to see how we would treat his kin. Also, the pigeon, previously written about in one of my blogs, which we made sure was safely returned back to land. Another of the Sea God’s offspring sent to test our resolve.
Our most recent omen, however, was just off Japan after we passed through the final mandatory gate and got our first sniffs of the proper Pacific Ocean. Three swallows came and tried to nest inside the boat. With us cruising along under kite at the time, we had the hatches open and they were extremely curious of our floating home. A few times they flew in and out of the nav station, galley, saloon and accommodation with a few crew waking up to the unusual sight of the on-watch trying to shoo the feathery friends back outside. In the end we decided it wasn’t worth the hassle and I had one sat in the nav station with me for half an hour pouring over tactics before it joined its tiny mates outside, perched up on one of the foreguys.
Now, I’m not a superstitious person at all, but I am a little ‘stitious and swallows can’t be such a bad sign. Point one, they’re known for making long journeys and often are tattooed onto the arms of sailors to represent thousands of miles sailed. Secondarily, the ‘Three Little Birds’ all in a row made me think of the Bob Marley lyrics ‘Don’t worry about a thing, because every little thing gonna be alright.’ So far, so good, and if we continue our progress at this rate I’ll be buying those birds a pint of bird seed at the other end.
Hooroo cobbers,
Cam, Bob and the crystal ball watching Ha Long Bay crew