Musings of a Fatigued Mind July 13

Shifty

As we battle the light, fickle winds of this part of the pacific right now the crew of Sauvage is devolving into a small tribe, of sorts. We have decided to embrace polytheism as a whole and pantheism as a flavor. Our pantheon of gods really has but one god we pray to: Shifty, the god of the wind. As our tribe is new at this we don't really know how to get Shifty's attention, let alone her favor. We met in our prayer circle with our drums and rattles and tried to discern what would please Shifty and have decided animal and/or human sacrifice would not be appropriate, too messy. Our spiritual leader, Lord Jim, has decided power over fire would get Shifty's good graces. We have a number of left over birthday candles that we light in the cabin and then we make a wish for air and hold the candle up in the companion way for Shifty to blow out. Sometimes it takes a while and Boyscout has received hot wax burns more than once. Eventually Shifty notices our little tribute and puffs out the candle and the boat goes forward. This is also our wish, our only wish. So far this ritual has had limited success. Apparently the Boyscout has a one wish, one time use present for Shifty that he guarantees will work, and work big. The problem is we're not sure when to pull the trigger on this gift, nor do we now the price that be extracted from us upon usage. Boyscout refuses to tell what this offering is and frankly we kind of think he's bluffing. In any case we haven't gotten that desperate yet and now we're riding a squall front that is pushing us along in the 9's in the right direction. The tribe tends to become less devout when there is wind. So we barrel along in the hopes that Shifty will continue smile. Oh, wait, the wind is lightening right now, Sam get the candles!!

Oh a sailor's life for me.

Spanky