Serendipities – 12 August

Serendipities today:

 

1.  This afternoon I was in Edinburgh for Bizarre Guitar and Terse Verse.  Outside the Blind Poet I passed two girls.  One had pink and blue hair.  I heard her say ‘Adelaide’.  I stopped dead in my tracks and spoke to her.  She had come across especially to take in the wealth of Edinburgh Festival.

2.  I caught a wee bit of Ade At Sea (http://www.itv.com/presscentre/ep1week12/ade-sea) and lo and behold, after a map appeared with Plymouth on the map, he visited the Eddystone Lighthouse.

150 years ago today City of Adelaide picked up passengers from Plymouth and set off for Adelaide, South Australia on her maiden voyage.  Diary entry for 12 August 1864:

August 12, 1864 – Friday

A beautiful day.  About 9.50 A.M. a boatman came to tell us that the City of Adelaide was in sight.  Tom and I took a walk and bought several little things.  At 1 P.M. we took a boat and sailed to the ship.  Blanche and I wrote letters to the Patersons.  Tom stayed on board for about two hours.  We sailed at 4 P.M.  We stayed on deck till after we had passed the Eddystone Lighthouse and then went down to bed but not to sleep.  We were dreadfully seasick during the night.

This is Day One.  My diary of City of Adelaide‘s final voyage as cargo on the deck of heavy lift ship MV Palanpur begins on 26 November 2013 and is written in tandem with this diary from the maiden voyage.

All images

© Rita Bradd

Lashing the City of Adelaide in her cradle to the deck of MV Palanpur
Lashing the City of Adelaide in her cradle to the deck of MV Palanpur

This image is taken in Rotterdam, City of Adelaide has been wrapped in plastic after being fumigated to conform with quarantine regulations for Australia.

 

 

 

 

Blind Poet, Edinburgh

Last night I read at the Blind Poet pub in Edinburgh during a 5 1/2 hour marathon of spoken word put on by Blind Poetics (www.blindpoetics.com).   My slot was placed amongst bards from the Federation of Writers (Scotland).   I spoke briefly about my voyage on board MV Palanpur with our precious cargo clipper ship City of Adelaide taking her back to Australia, and shared a few poems written on the voyage.

Today I spent a worthy afternoon in the company of Bil & Cyn at Edinburgh Fringe, in the Blind Poet.  For the last few years they’ve had their own show called Bizarre Guitar and Terse Verse, a wonderfully balanced duo act of poetry and jazz guitar (www.bil-cyn.com).  They introduced me to their friend and guest musician Les Ray (www.leslieray.co.uk) who is also a freelance writer and musician, and is involved with the Cambridge Folk Festival.  All three are coming to my house tomorrow, bringing their guitars and voice.  So looking forward to that.