Having acquired a ukulele I've been exploring all the website which provide ukulele chords. Yesterday I found the chords for Beyond the Sea, and discovered it was originally written as La Mer by a French singer & songwriter, Charles Trenet. Apparently he was inspired to write it on a train travelling from Paris to Narbonne, and lacking a notebook at the time, he wrote the words on to SNCF toilet paper.
The lyrics of the first verse read:
La mer
Qu'on voit danser le long des golfes clairs
A des reflets d'argent
La mer, des reflets changeants
Sous la pluie.
If you paste these into Babel Fish, it helpfully says:
Sea That one sees dancing along the clear gulfs With money reflections
Sea Changing reflections Under the rain.
What a great site it is.
Kalessin of Orwell is a 33ft Westerly Storm. In 2006-8 we sailed her down to Portugal, into the Med, and home through the French canals. In 2011 we explored Baltic Germany and Denmark. After Sam's stroke we cruised gently on the East Coast, the Netherlands and Brittany, and in 2021 sailed to Cornwall and back. In 2024, following Sam's death, Camilla plans a memorial round-Britain cruise
What we got for Christmas
Our presents were much less sailing-related this year than in many previous years. Perhaps that's because we already have a lot of what we need?
By special request, my present from the boys (although I do suspect Sam of organising it) was a purple ukulele. They are said to be the easiest instruments to learn and I thought it was about time I caught up with Sam and his Fender. A key attribute is that a ukulele is also small, light, tough and cheap, all ideal attributes for an istrument played on a boat. I can already play half a dozen chords. If you fancy playing a uke there are some great videos on YouTube (including one from the Penguin Cafe Orchestra) and an excellent training site written by Pineapple Pete in Toronto.
I bought Sam an EcoBlast, a very loud horn for alerting French lock-keepers. Unlike most cheap horns which use gas canisters this one can be recharged with a bicycle pump or a garage air pump. The boys love it, because it's deafeningly loud (literally). I suspect there may not be much oomph left by the time we meet our first lock.
Sam also got a book, Sailing's Strangest Moments, which is good for dipping into when you want a slightly odd experience.
And I got Dee Caffari's Against the Flow. This is quite odd because in my current role at Aviva (who sponsor Dee) I've been publishing quite a bit about Dee on our global intranet, and the Ocean Racing website is coordinated a few feet from where I sit. When her mast fell down in a force 9 in the Bay of Biscay I was the only one in the office, so it was all down to me. I got a fair bit of stick from Sam for mentioning Aviva even more than usual when I got home... and it turns out he'd bought me this book anyway.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Merry Christmas from just me
Video of photos made for Sam's funeral Dear friends and family As I hope you all know, this year has been a difficult one for me. On ...
-
Video of photos made for Sam's funeral Dear friends and family As I hope you all know, this year has been a difficult one for me. On ...
-
I thought it might be helpful to put details of Sam's funeral online. There will be an inquest into his death because he had a fall, but...
-
Sam Brown, 28 May 1940 - 6 September 2023. On Sunday 27 August, Sam was feeling a bit under the weather and stayed in bed for most of ...