Postcards From The Pond 5

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Lat 26 42.23’ North  Long 22 25.47’ West

Heading West

There is something about that phrase “heading west” which has a resonance unlike any other. I suppose we all have our visions of the cardinal points of the compass, our own interpretations of what “north”. “south”, “east” and “west” mean to us as individuals with our own personal geographical heritage. For someone from England, “north” is forever associated with cold winds and salted herring, whilst “south” conjures up suspect Europeans and olive oil. “East” means the endless steppes of Eastern Europe, but “west” means nothing really except endless sea and the promise of the unknown. (I will excuse my mate Tony Zimnoch from this interpretation because he lives in Hebden Bridge and to him “west” means the exotic fleshpots of Burnley). 

So here I am at last, sailing due west from the Canary Islands to who knows where. I  now know how Columbus must have felt, I now appreciate that combination of objective believe that the world is in fact round with the worried belief that it really does come to an end in some kind of gigantic waterfall in the middle of the Atlantic. Within the next few days, we will see.

Thanks for all you kind comments which I do read even if I have not the ability to reply. As you can imagine, internet time in the middle of the Atlantic doesn’t come cheap and I limit myself to quickly uploading my daily post and speed-reading the previous days comments. But to answer a number of the common questions let me say that we are on the P&O ship Ventura (and I believe there is a webcam and tracker on the P&O website), we are heading for the West Indies (or a big waterfall at the end of the world) and the LW is still very much a GLW. 

Must go now, I can hear the sound of rushing water. Strange, it sounds almost like a waterfall ……..

Yours until the end of the earth

AB