Happy Mothers Day. Spent a day watching the Avengers and printing lots of photos (worked well on i9900 with Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl, big change settings were to use Pro Paper Glossy, Saturation and on black point compensation so as to maximize dynamic range and then create a custom profile with SpyderPrint).
Anyway, the regatta was fun and had time to look at some cool nautical terms:
- Ropeyarn. A term from Sunday’s off when sailors would mend their clothes with “rope yarn”
- Bitterend. The end of the rope attached to a bitter (a knob of wood on an old ship)
- Coxswain. Swain means a keeper and a cock was a small boat kept on British ships.
- Carry on. Means to that when the wind is group, to drop all the sails to take full advantage
- Devil to pay. The devil is the long seam of the ship and pay is the ptich used to seal it. Dirty work in other words.
- Ditty bag. Originally a ditto bag and referred to the days when it was used to carry two of everything.
- Fathom. from the old english means faetm (Anglo Saxon means embracing with your arms). The six feet is about the distance of outstretch hands.
- Horse latitudes. 30-40 degree north latitude in the Carribbean where the winds would die and (sadly) horse transported on board would have to be thrown overboard to conserve water.
- Mind your Ps and Qs. On pay day, the number of pints and quarts you drank at the local tavern was deducted from your pay.
