L'Eau Commotion Westabout

Day 8 4:30pm Saturday 15th June 2019
Much of last night was spent keeping an eye out for the constant shipping and one vessel in particular. My AIS had us on converging courses from way out - 20 miles, and as we were heading generally SW it took a while to get in visual range. It was then noticeable that he altered course to Port to pass exactly one mile to my Port side and as he passed I felt obliged to thank him for showing me the courtesy of the sea. “ Not a problem - have safe journey “ came the cheerful reply. It bodes well for those times through either exhaustion or carelessness when a proper watch is not kept.
As forecast the wind got up to around the twenty knot mark on the nose which was handled comfortably with some to spare using a single reef in the main.
As you know I love reading your comments on the blog and I started to wonder whether it is too much of the Sun or could it be a result of the almost full moon beaming through the open companionway that gives rise my random thoughts. By way of this I looked at a random jotting I made just a year ago whilst NOT in the tropics and written on 16th June 2018. I publish it in full as written.

The Laws of Nature and The Laws of Man.
In civil society a set of rules has gradually come into existence by which that society can function. These rules by their very nature are extraordinarily complicated and require a large body of men to legislate interpret and enforce. Such rules are commonly known as The Law and are constantly evolving depending on the needs of that society and indeed on the whims of individuals within that society. Again it is commonly believed that such rules should be obeyed except where they interfere with the pursuits of individuals or groups when a balance between the benefits of obeying the law are balanced against those in breaking it.
And then there are those other Laws -The Laws of Nature, The Laws of Physics, The Laws of Thermodynamics, The Laws of Motion. Call them what you will they all have this in common - they are all short pithy and to the point, they must all be obeyed without question and all are invariably wrong. At best some of them give adequate descriptions of limited observations with unstated but very real boundary conditions. At worst they are so totally wrong as to defy the imagination. In the development of Science as we know the term today each and every one of these Laws has been rigorously applied without constraints and the resultant conclusions however ridiculous taken to be the ultimate truth. Bold statements to be sure. Let us look at two glaring examples. First - Entropy in Thermodynamics. Defined as the amount of energy in a system that is no longer available for doing mechanical work which must always increase. Very true if you analyse say a steam engine in a closed boiler house. To then conclude “ Entropy increases as matter and energy in the universe degrade to an ultimate state of inert uniformity “ simply has no corelation. Second - The Law of Universal Gravitation. This states that everything in the Universe is attracted to everything else. Simple observation of the many Galaxies already observed ( some authorities quote one thousand billion Galaxies each containing one thousand billion stars ) show that they are not collapsing but are just going on doing what they have always done. The notion that there is an external force pushing the stars towards the centre of the Galaxies where massive collisions set off nuclear explosions, bits blow up , much noise and fury, things settle down and then do it again bears some credence. We sense this force every day of our lives and the Scientists tell us it is theEarth attracting us when a more realistic scenario and one worth investigating is that it is a force pushing us down.
Those more recent to this blog may well wonder what brought on this dissertation but old hands will know the reason - it’s The Climate, Stoopid. It's just too perfect. If we ignore the few minutes becalmed below a beautiful Cu with a refreshing misty little shower in the morning the rest of the time has been spent sliding along the gentle blue seas with just the very breeze advertised in the Tahiti Tourist Centre. Here I am far away from the climate catastrophe being brought about by you Landlubbers using thin plastic shopping bags instead of thick indestructible ones and coal from Queensland instead of distillate from Kuwait to ward off those wintry chills. At least for another 49 days till the blame for the imminent collapse of Society is transferred to my shoulders as a person who is not Acting and not Acting Right Now.