We had hoped we might hear from our Topology poetry editor Elisabeth somehow on her cross-Atlantic sailing journey, despite the necessary limitations of communications, and here it is! Check out her first post for the Tres Hombres blog, which is about the importance of doing unnecessary things to make life nice for one another:
… on the Tres Hombres, washing dishes goes like this: Pull up several buckets of seawater from over the side, being sure not to lose the bucket to the pull of our wake. Fill a basin with this. Then fill two more basins with water pumped from our holding tanks, approximately the same temperature as the air, a few degrees above freezing. Stand outside on the pitching deck and get your hands in the water, attempting to clean the dirty dishes, pots, and pans of seventeen hungry people. In the dark, for it’s after dinner. With no light, for it blinds the helmsperson. And then make sure they’re dried and put away as soon as possible, lest they get swept off by an errant wave. And yet, the dishes get clean. Every day we eat out of clean bowls, with clean spoons and forks, clean mugs, clean table.
You can read the entire post and follow Elisabeth’s journey on the Tres Hombres blog.
