The Other Queen

The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory.

I usually enjoy Historical Novels, and I was not disappointed with this one. It covers the first three years of Mary Queen of Scots captivity in England, and it is full of plots and intrigue.
It follows three central characters; the Earl of Shrewsbury, one of the old aristocracy who is charged with guarding Mary; Bess of Hardwick, his newly married wife; and Mary herself. Each chapter is told in the first person by one of these three.  They give us three very different personal takes on the action, and on each other.
These are momentous times for nations; Will the Spanish King invade to restore Mary to the Scottish throne, or to overthrow Elizabeth, and make Mary Queen of England as well?; Will England continue in the protestant faith or will the old familiar faith be restored?  The story that unfolds is also a very personal one; a queen who longs to be free; a noble faithful to his Queen, and to the woman he has married, yet attracted to this beautiful queen it is his duty to guard; and a woman whose household is disrupted by this unwelcome rival for her new husband's attention.
The very lines of English Society are laid bare. For Shrewsbury, his duty is to his Monarch, as it had been with his family for 500 years. His loyalty is with his brother peers, who resent that a commoner such as William Cecil should be advising the Queen rather than themselves. His wife Bess has more in common with Cecil, born in poverty, advancing in society by her own abilities, enjoying wealth that used to belong to the church, she has everything to lose if Roman religion is restored. During the few years of this story, the very future of England, as well as the the other Queen, and their own household hangs in the balance.
The story is not particularly kind to Elizabeth, and much less so to William Cecil. Then again, the three central characters are also portrayed with all their weaknesses, either in their own thinking or that of each other.
A good story well told.

Irons

A sailing boat is in Irons when it is pointing too close to the wind to catch the sail, and with no speed, you cannot use the rudder to turn away from the wind.
What I learnt on Sunday is that even if you are not sailing forward, you my be sailing backwards, and so using the rudder may be of use, but you have to turn it the "wrong" way.  If you attempt to steer away from the wind, all you manage to do is turn towards it.  To the extent you are sailing backwards, you can turn the rudder towards where you want to stern to go.
In open water, you are not particularly worried as to which direction you point, provided you do not turn back towards the wind by not recognising the rudder works in reverse.  You can always sail backwards intentionally, by holding the boom out to the side, but it is worth knowing that you may be sailing backwards even without holding the boom.
If I had realised that, and had my wits about me, I might have remembered a simpler way of getting out of irons. That is raising the centre-board. Instead of pivoting about the centreboard, you start pivoting about the rudder.
Finally there is the solution that was not available to me, as I was sailing with a single sail.  You can tighten the jib, so that it catches the wind a turn the nose away from the wind

Weekend Sailing at Killington

Another Great Weekend Sailing at Killington.
I did not want to capsize on Saturday, not least because I was not wearing a wetsuit, in solidarity with my crew, who joined me on the spur of the moment that morning.  Rod, a volunteer with Cockermouth mountain rescue, a keen walker, rock climber and trail cyclist, is particularly sensitive to sloping floors, does not like the movement on ferries, and rarely if ever sails, but he chose to join me on Saturday. I am pleased to say that we did not get wet.

I am grateful to Pete Lawson who showed me how to reef the sail, and even with the reef we still managed a good turn of speed in the blustery conditions. Rod was a great crew, alert and responsive to the need to move about the boat.  He also managed to take a few pictures.
On Sunday I was quite happy to capsize, and took out the club RS Feva. Again I was grateful to Pete for showing me how to rig it. Definitely more tippy than the Wayfarer, it felt very precarious for the first half an hour.   I was glad that it did not blow up as strong as it looked it might, and glad to get used to the boat with a single sail.  As to how easy it is to recover after a capsize, that I will find out another time.

I had lunch with Pete and the couple from Edinburgh who were learning on the timber decked Seafly he was selling to them.  Just before lunch I had set off from the jetty to bring the Feva round to the slipway, as Pete was going to use it in the afternoon, so they could each sail a different boat single handed.  He used my example of how not to do it to teach us all how to get out of irons.
There was just a short session after a late lunch, and I had a brief sail in the Wayfarer before packing it away ready for next time.

Ghost

This is called The Ghost Writer in other countries, and it has nothing to do with ghosts.
A rather bookish Ewan McGregor is commissioned to edit for publication the memoirs of Adam Lang a former UK prime minister played by Pierce Brosnan, and travels to America where he is living at the time.
He soon finds the apparently smooth running household to be in quite a turmoil. Adam Lang is indited for war crimes in the Hague, and the isolated location gets swamped with the press and protesters.  Meanwhile Ewan McGregor's character becomes more concerned about what happened to the previous ghost writer, and discovers clues that he left behind.
The best thing about the film is not the growing tension and intrigue, but the domestic tension inside the Lang household. There are some superb scenes, but Olivia Williams, who plays Adam's wife Ruth steals them all.
There is a cameo appearance from Eli Wallach, which is always good. Quite a good film, with some interesting twists along the way.

Reefing

My first thought about reefing was the ties around the boom along the foot of the sail, that are each tied with a reef knot, but these need to the the last thought, not the first.
At either end of this line of reef points is a cringle, a ring in the sale, one on the luff, that becomes the new tack, and one on the leech, that becomes the new clew.
First, obviously, lower the main sail partially, then using a length of thin rope, tie the cringle in the luff (nearest the mast) to the boom.
Then using another length, pass the rope between the cringle on the leech (side furthest from the mast) and the clew, getting as tight as possible, then, at the cringle, tie the rope tight round the boom.
Once the tack and the clew are resolved, then the ties along the boom can be tied, using a series of reef knots.

How to rig an RS Feva

I sailed with just a single sail, so these notes deal with the main sail only.
The two ends of the halyard appear to be interchangeable, as neither run inside the mast.  One had a ball at the end, so I attached that to the head.  Then, starting with the head, the luff of the sale feeds into the mast as you tighten the halyard.
Tighten the halyard as hard as you can; it does not matter if there is a gap between the boom and the sail; get the sail as high as you can.  The halyard was fixed with a cleat, pulled from top to bottom.
The boom has part of a circle which fits round the mast, just above a rest on the mast.
Next attach the Tack (corner between mast and boom). We used a short piece of thin rope.  I guess this could be tied onto the tack, but we tied one end to a bar on the cleat piece, passed it through the tack, and down to the cleat.  Even pulled tight, there was a gap between the sail and and the boom.
After the tack we tightened the outhaul. This was another length of thin rope, tied to the clew, round a hook at the end of the boom and pulled tight by a cleat on the boom.
Finally tighten the kicking strap.
So, the order is halyard, tack, outhall, kicking strap.