Recurrent dreams

[John Vigor]

Nobody sent me a helicopter this Christmas, so I wasn't able to finalize my theories about the reason why it's more advantageous to lock your propeller when sailing, rather than let it freewheel.

But once again I had a sailing dream that has been recurring for decades, and I wondered if any other contributors to this board have dreams about boats that just keep coming back year after year.

My dream is very simple. It involves a small sailboat, something between 25 and 30 feet, sailing quietly into a narrow protected inlet just after nightfall.

There is one man on board, of indeterminate age. He's at the bow, getting the anchor ready to drop, and then he moves back to strike the mainsail and furl it neatly on the boom.

The last scene is of utter peace: the silhouette of the boat lying to her anchor in a near calm, the man below, probably putting the kettle on the stove, and soft glowing lamplight pouring out of the portholes.

That's it. It's always exactly the same. I have no idea what it means and I have been too scared to ask a professional.

Have you experienced anything like this, or is it just me?

Cheers,

John Vigor

[Zeida]

Happy New Year, John... in reading the recurring dream you describe, why bother to wonder why or question it? It's wonderful, so Just enjoy it every time it happens. Maybe one day you will find yourself re-enacting that dream.

By the way, The Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat was one of my Christmas presents and I've been enjoying it greatly by reading it while on my boat. It is great!. I am highlighting lots of your suggestions and will be following them up with "Bandolera". Thanks for a fantastic book.

[John Vigor]

Oh, I do enjoy my dream, Zeida, but I just keep wondering why it recurs and why it's always exactly the same. One might expect some development of the plot after the 10th time, surely, maybe a dinghy approaching silently, rowed by a beautiful woman with a large box of rum and ginger beer. But no, this never happens. I am stuck in the groove. And I often wonder if any other sailors have their own recurring dreams, or maybe nightmares. Some of the most realistic dreams I've ever had involved flying. I was able to fly like Superman merely by lifting my arms. Those dreams were marvelous and always different.

No matter. I'm glad you're enjoying The Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat and finding it useful, though I have to say I don't think there's much you need do to Bandolera. She is, like all Cape Dories, very seaworthy both in design and construction, and you keep her in immaculate condition. She's the kind of boat a lot of people dream of, to tell you the truth.

So happy New Year to you and to all the dreamers on this board.

Cheers,

John V

[chase]

Hi John,

I have had a recurring dream of dragging anchor, usually after a long cruise. Most recently I dreamed two nights in a row I was off course, after my first multi-day coastal passage. I woke up and it took some real convincing by my wife that I was NOT at sea.

I'll look forward to the anchoring under sail in the quiet anchorage dream but can't presume to know what yours is about. Perhaps a metaphor for something unrelated to sailing...if in fact there IS anything else.

Also got Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat for Christmas from my grandmother and went right through it. I think that my little black box has been my saving grace and has offset my total lack of experience at times. The theory is both allegorical and very practical. Thanks for your books, I've enjoyed several now.

Thinking Inverted,

Chase

[John Vigor]

Hi Chase:

Well what a wonderful grandmother you have. Such excellent taste in literature. Everyone should have a grandmother like that.

I can empathise with your dream about dragging anchor. Before my first coastal voyage as skipper, with a greenhorn crew, I had regular nightmares and would wake up in a sweat. I'm happy to report that they disappeared when I finally got up the nerve to leave port. This anxiety is common among new sailors, I'm told, but, as I found out, it vanishes as soon as the land disappears behind you and your entire worry mechanism is diverted to guiding your little ship along her intended path.

And you're right about the little black box theory. It's a lifesaver, and several people have told me it's equally applicable on land.

Cheers,

John V.

[Tom in Cambria]

Both my crews and I have noticed that we tend to have sailing anxiety dreams just before we leave port on a long cruise. Once we're underway they stop. My theory is that it's like impending bad weather. Before it arrives you worry about it, but once you're caught out in it, you just think about the things that need doing and your mind is occupied with putting in a reef or streaming the drogue or whatever.

I have one pleasant sailing dream that I get every few years that doesn't have to do with a departure. I'm in a small sailboat in a foreign land which I think is India. I'm forereaching along in a perfectly smooth harbor gliding past houses where friendly people are sitting at their windows or porches and are waving at me and smiling and seem happy and surprised to see me and my boat. It's a very warm and friendly place and I'm pleased to be there like sailing through the Arabian nights with minarets and pointed ornate arches. I also have no idea what it means but I'm always happy to have it again.

As far as flying dreams go I read somewhere that men at least get an erection while sleeping and dreams of flying have to do with really "getting up there." They are always very pleasant dreams that we're sorry to awaken from. I don't know if women get flying dreams also, but perhaps they get pleasant dreams of swimming or something. Off hand I can't think of a male I know who hasn't had flying dreams, and I can't remember anyone saying it wasn't a pleasant dream either. I know I don't have near enough of them.

Is there going to be an article or book titled "Sailor's Dreams?" I've heard lots of stories from sailors about waking up from a deep sleep to find that there is a ship on a collision course bearing down on them or some other danger. We seem to have a kind of sixth sense about these things. Of course those who didn't wake up aren't here to tell us about those dreams.

[darmoose]

Hey John,

All this conjuring up of beautiful women with boxes of wine, and flapping your arms to fly around like Superman sounds like it could be just a bad case of indegestion; have you tried Pepto Bismo?

My therapist says its important to keep our dreams seperate from reality. Is this where you got that silly helicopter/ locked prop business?

Maybe a professional could help after all. I could give you a phone number.

Anyway, good luck with the dreams and Happy New Year to you.

From Sunny South Florida

Darrell

[Parfait's Provider]

Based on a local, but not personal, experience here at Beaufort inlet, I think it means that you are not going to run into any large ships on your final leg to that safe harbor. May it be so.

[John Vigor]

Hey John,

All this conjuring up of beautiful women with boxes of wine, and flapping your arms to fly around like Superman sounds like it could be just a bad case of indegestion; have you tried Pepto Bismo?

My therapist says its important to keep our dreams seperate from reality. Is this where you got that silly helicopter/ locked prop business?

Maybe a professional could help after all. I could give you a phone number.

Anyway, good luck with the dreams and Happy New Year to you.

From Sunny South Florida

Darrell

Hey Darrell,

It never occurred to me that it might be indigestion. You might be on to something. But if indigestion gives me dreams of flying, I'm all for it. Pass me the jerky and cream cheese, if you don't mind.

As for professional advice, I've never gotten any. I do, however, have a friend who is a physcotherapist, and every time I mention to her that there's this guy Darrell on the Cape Dory board who gives me a hard time over my propeller freewheeling theory, she gets that hooded look over her eyes, backs off six feet, and makes sure we're not alone.

She doesn't even know the clever ins and outs of my freewheeling theory, so I don't quite know what to make of this. Maybe I will try a small dose of Pepto Bismol after all.

Cheers,

John V.

[darmoose]

Hey John,

You take it well, my friend. Dream on.

FWISF

Darrell

[Robert Delaney]

John-

I recall what T.E. Lawrence had to say about dreams:

"All men dream but not equally. They who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it is vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible".

I suspect in your case that you indeed "act your dream with open eyes, to make it possible"

Now to the freewheeling propeller issue. I am a commercial pilot, with instrument and sea ratings, and several thousand hours of flight time. The most basic instruction in all flight schools is that when flying a propeller driven airplane and you lose engine power and wish to maximize your gliding distance (hopefully to find a safe landing spot), you immediately raise the nose of the airplane to almost a stalling speed so that the internal friction of the engine overcomes the friction of the air that is freewheeling the propeller. This will stop the propellers rotation. This greatly reduces the drag caused by the rotating propeller and will increases your gliding distance. This is not in dispute and has been proven many times, both mathematically and by actual experiments. The same holds thru for a propeller operating in a water medium as it does in the air. Stop the Prop!

I am also a sailer by the way, and have owned four Cape Dories - two CD 22's, a CD 22 Typhoon Senior, and a CD 19 Typhoon.

I also have all your books - don't stop writing.

[darmoose]

Robert,

Welcome to the fray. You certainly have some credentials there.

On first reading your analogy, it seemed to make a worthy case for your position. However, on second reading and a little thought, i think there is a flaw in your comparison of a gliding airplane with a sailboat under sail.

I am sure we can agree that drag or resistance is measured by the force it takes to overcome it. Indeed, you state in your analogy that the propeller is brought to a stop by the "internal friction of the engine". This then is the force required to stop the propeller at the stall speed you described, as obviously, the airplane needs to move forward at least a little lest it fall from the sky.

What is missing from this picture that makes your airplane unlike a sailboat under sail is another force like the sails full of wind pushing the boat forward, thereby increasing the force it takes to hold the propeller still.

We could introduce another force on your airplane to make it like the sailboat by simply pointing the nose down even just a little. Now we have gravity playing the role of the wind in our sails.

What do you suppose happens to the force needed to hold your airplane propeller still now as the airplane speed increases. It goes up,up, up. And so, we are measuring the force it takes to hold the propeller still and comparing that force to the force required to let the propeller freewheel at various speeds all the way up to the full speed of the airplanes travel.

In all cases, it will take more force to hold the propeller at slower and slower speeds relative to the speed of travel, and ultimately it will take the greatest force to completely stop the propeller.

Thats true for airplanes and sailboats and even for helicopters. When a propeller freewheels through the air or the water it is merely taking the path of least resistance.

FWISFL

Darrell Randolph

[Zeida]

Well, about flying dreams... it's not exclusive to men. When I was still dancing (classical ballet) professionally, I had the most wonderful recurring dream. If you guys don't know what a "grand jeté" means, it is as follows: you take a couple of running steps and then push off the floor, swinging up the front extended leg le at the same time your back leg becomes horizontal behind you, as in a split in mid air. You try to hold this position as you travel forward, usually about 1 second, then you land. Well, In my dream, I started in the ballet studio, took off running and became airborne in my grand jete, except I would not land, but as in Peter Pan, I would continue flying over houses, parks, rivers, always in the perfect grand jete position, arms extended at the side, legs holding the split... and I would soar in an endless monster jeté! I never landed anywhere, b ut at some point, my dream would end, with no conclusion whatsoever, with me still up in the air.

I used to wish, many nights while still awake, that maybe tonight I will get the "grand jeté" dream, because it was such an incredible feeling. BUT my ballet classes have been a wonderful gift to my sailing, because I am still, after many years of not doing them, able to fit into the back of my engine room and work on my old and cranky Universal 5424. How I get in and out of that cockpit locker and become a pretzel down there, would be totally impossible if I had not been a dancer for all those years. So much for my recurring flying dream. Phiuuuu!

[Judith]

Can't say as I have any flying dreams, though I frequently wake up--or fall asleep--to the sensation of being rocked in the V-berth, even though I'm at home. However, I DO attribute my persistent flexibility to a couple decades of playing soccer (strictly recreational--well, aside from coaching).

Judith

[Warren Kaplan]

John,

I would say that your whole being loves sailing and the peace and order it brings to you in this hectic and often chaotic world.

Your dream is of the serene. The ultimate end to marvelous day doing what you love!