I have been thinking about this particular subject for almost three weeks now- it's an annual occurrence, the reflecting part that is, and has been since 1982. On 15 February of that year, 84 lives were lost when The Ocean Ranger went down in a storm off Newfoundland.
I was working on a rig at the time- The Rowan Juneau- off Sable Island and we had had a bit of a brush with the same weather system some hours before. I remember our radio operator's look of despair when no further chatter could be picked up from the Ranger and the supply ships reported that one of the "unsinkable" rigs had capsized.
And while it is, as I said earlier, an annual period of reflection, this year that reflection has lingered- triggered I suppose by items in the news from both here and from back in Nova Scotia:
A fishing boat swamped in the waters off the coast in the southern part of Queensland- the skipper made it but his deckhand is lost, presumed drowned.
A friend posted a photo the other day of a coiled heaving line from The Bounty- one of the few items remaining from the replica built for the movie- the loss coming after the skipper set sail into hurricane conditions.
The sinking of The Miss Ally and the loss of all five aboard after sailing from Cape Sable Island on a halibut fishing trip.
And the announcement by Clive Palmer that he is building a replica of The Titanic- that most famous of unsinkable maritime vessels- and will be tracing the voyage of the original (hopefully with a much better outcome).
The local club road racing season has just started- a series of crits last weekend and the following two Sundays to kick things off. It was really good to see a number of new faces across most grades fronting up to race- it will be interesting to see if interest remains high when we get into the longer road races.
Cheers- ride safe
BoaB
1 comment:
I remember going to work at the Maritime Resource Management Agency one morning to the shocked silence of my co-workers, who told me that a rig had gone down, and they didn't know which one. That leaves a big mark, and I feel lucky every day that it wasn't the Juneau.
I still have family who go down to the sea to fish. I hold my breath when there is a winter storm. We are who we are, and the north Atlantic is a big part of our story. What it is baby.
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