Eyes Peeled

MothAs I attempted, last night, to photograph an interesting moth in the Print Room, the creature flew off. This afternoon, Becky produced this image. When I confessed my failure, a certain amount of hilarity ensued. There is, you see, a family myth that whenever I attempt to photograph anything possessing wings, it disappears.

Once more the rain hammered down all day. I retreated to my slide files and scanned more of those from the May 2004 Barbados trip.

There was great excitement when the day of Sam’s arrival dawned. Jessica, Louisa, Chris, Frances, Fiona, and I boarded the splendid yacht belonging to Stein and Diana. After 59 days alone at sea, our son was coming in ahead of the field. all he had to do was hug the northern tip of Barbados, not too tightly, so he neither crashed on the rocks, nor sped out to Cuba on the prevailing current. Not as simple as it sounds.

Jessica and Louisa 1Jessica and Louisa 4.04 002Jessica and Diana 4.04

Louisa

As we reached the open waters of the Caribbean Sea, Jessica, Louisa, and Diana dived overboard for an invigorating swim. Although bright blue and bracing, I am told the water was somewhat colder than it looked.

Stein in rigging 1

Stein in rigging 2

Soon, Stein scaled his rigging and took up the role of advance scout, as he scanned the horizon for the small red speck that would be Sam’s boat, Pacific Pete.

Suddenly a sighting was announced, and, eyes peeled, we all peered into the distance. This, as it emerged, is what we saw. Sam is in each picture. Getting nearer all the time.

Sam first sighting 1

Sam first sighting 3Sam first sighting 4Sam first sighting 4.04 005
Sam first sighting 6

Could the heightened emotions on our boat possibly have matched those of our son?

Sam arriving 1

Sam arriving 2Sam arriving 3Sam arriving 4

As he approached, only the long camera lens could discern details which escaped the naked eye.

Sam arriving 5

Eventually, as Sam reached the island, alongside which he had more rowing to do to arrive at the quay at Port St Charles, we could greet each other across the waves.

This evening we dined on Mr Pink’s fish and chips, mushy peas, pickled onions, and gherkins. Becky and I finished the white Cotes du Rhone, Ian drank San miguel, and Jackie drank Hoegaarden.

27 comments

  1. WOW! Great pictures of Sam’s approach. I have the same trouble photographing winged things – I’ve never photographed an angel…

    (Derrick – how do you scan slides? I have piles of them and the local shops charge $2.00 to digitalize each slide. Have you a special machine?)

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    1. I do have a good machine, Bruce. I’ve had it nearly 10 years. It uses templates into which you slot slides or negatives. Mine is Epson Perfection V750 PRO. It can deal with 12 at a time.There must be later ones on the market now. Thanks for the reading and comment, as usual

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  3. Great photos, and another piece of history. Photographing moths is only part of the story – have you identified it yet? I have several photos of greyish/brownsh moths. 😉

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  7. Looks a bit like a peppered moth to me. The pic gives it a bluey hue but the peppered is very white white with black markings. Was it bluey? Great adventure meeting your son like that.

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  10. The photos of the boat coming closer are really special. There’s something incredibly calming at looking at those ocean pictures.

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  12. What a story! I can only imagine how you all must have felt. I would have been all nerves had it been my son. Also, thanks for explaining what mushy peas are. The things I am learning from your blog 😉

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  13. Love the captures of fun time of being in the open waters of the Caribbean Sea. It looked like you son was in good control up there. Thank you for sharing, Derrick! 🙂

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