Some beautiful photos, including lightning and thunderclouds at sea

It'll take you a while to scroll through all of these and some will not interest you. But there are some real gems:

National Geographic's Photo Contest 2010

Wonder how many of them are seasick?

Saw this earlier today and thought I'm mighty glad I'm not onboard!

Writing and Sailing - waiting for the perfect conditions

I was pondering earlier this morning and came to the conclusion that writing and sailing don’t have a lot in common. And how, I hear you ask, can you explain such a strange, but obvious, statement?

Well, I’ve always been one to wait for conditions to be just right before I put pen to paper. Actually, these days it’s much more likely to be tapping away at the keyboard! But the fact remains, I find it hard to get into the mood, get everything just so, so that I can write.

With sailing, you can certainly wait for the perfect conditions before you set out. But you won’t be able to go sailing nearly as often as you could, because you would always be waiting for perfection.

And if you’re sailing any sort of distance, even if you did set out in perfect conditions, one or more changes would come through and you, your crew and boat would have to handle them.

And, of course, Jessica Watson certainly wouldn't have been able to complete her circumnavigation is she'd only been able to sail in perfect conditions.

So, having been inspired to write this post after reading just the first three paragraphs of Chris Brogan’s How to Write Three Posts a Day, I think I’m doing quite well!

Celebrating World Rivers Day

I just found the following in Mr Punch Afloat (published by Educational Book Co, London, 1910). It was written by Robert.

THE SILVER TEMS

The butiful River's a-running to Town,
It never runs up, but allers runs down,
Weather it rains, or weather it snos;
And where it all cums from, noboddy nose.

The young swell Boatmen drest in white,
To their Mothers' arts must be a delite;
At roein or skullin the gals is sutch dabs,
For they makes no Fowls and they ketches no Crabs.

The payshent hangler sets in a punt,
Willee ketch kold? I hopes as he wunt.
I wotches him long, witch I states is fax,
He dont ketch nothin but Ticklebacks.

The prudent Ferryman sets under cover,
Waiting to take me from one shore to t'other;
I calls out "Hover!" and hover he roes,
If he aint sober then hover we goes.

When it's poring with rane and a tempest a-blowin,
A penny don't seem mutch for this here rowin;
And wen the River's as ruff as the Sea,
I thinks of the two I'd sooner be me.

For when I'm at work at Ampton or Lea,
Waitin at dinner, or waitin at tea,
I gits as much from a yewthful Pair
As he gits in a day for all that there.

Then let me bless my lucky Star
That made me a Waiter and not a Tar;
And the werry nex time I've a glass of old Sherry,
I’ll drink to the pore chap as roes that 'ere Ferry.

Free Help with Blogging

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

Welcome to Annie Goes Sailing

Sailing may be a bit of a misnomer as I'm thinking of making this blog a place where I post random thoughts, test new ideas and learn more about using the internet to market our product - The Boating Bible Manual of Seamanship.

In any case, it will be a lot less structured than our main website and blog.

Stay tuned for what's to come!

Annie