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A.porteous prw103 research the old man & the sailor
- 1. The Old Man and the Sailor Ali Porteous
Editor's Notes
- Ordinary World.Tells the true story of an ancient fantast, determined to fulfill a long idle dream.
- Of an adventure that had lain fallow in his mind for seventy two years.
- Although,or because Anthony felt exhausted and disappointed by life’s returns,
- financially cleaned out by divorces (and death duties) and compelled to live alone in penury,
- The call to adventure. He decides to muster all his savings, to fund a home-made raft to sail across the Atlantic Ocean.
- Refusal of the call. But plans must be put on hold when Anthony is diagnosed with prostate cancer and hospitalized for months.
- His dream further scuppered when he finds himself under a delivery van - the victim of a hit and run
- Meeting with mentor Unknown to Anthony, his life is now in the hands of an angel, the shipwrecked sailor, Widdicombe, sent to ‘dispatch’
- but against Fate’s orders the angel allows the old fool to hobble on living
- spurred on by the hit and run windfall Anthony sets off for the Canaries
- Crossing the threshold. To launch Antiki and sail away for 60 days across the Atlantic seas.
- A voyage stumped by mutinywhen the 3 old men he had press ganged return to their wives & lives.
- 700 miles short of the halloweddestination of Eleuthera they dumped An-Tiki on the Caribbean island of St Maarten.
- The approach. A year later Anthony returns to ‘the friendly island’, rattling with pills and uncertainties. Who would join his dawning escapade?
- His old pals were long dead or had gone to warmer climes for their winter years.
- Anthony’s head awash with cash and cancer trepidation,awaits his promised crew.
- The Drifters arrive;Bruno, a Brazilian photographer, who had joined Anthony decades ago,
- journeying 2000 miles through the Amazon on a home-made wood-burning steamboat.
- Nigel, a slightly known godson, living in Boston, USA, now a retired architect with sleep apnea,
- And Leigh,Nigel’s interior designing, amateur sailing, tennis championing wife.
- And Widdicombe, invisible but for the whistling and lingering smell of Woodbine cigarettes.
- A local jovial doctor sweet talks away lingering thoughts of cancer
- and every bill for An-Tiki’s renovation dissolves in generosity.
- The raised bridge salutes Antiki’sdeparture
- And the shabby raft sets sail for the open seas.
- The happiest 86 year old, back on track with his dream.
- Until balmy days and amity give way to tension and animosity.
- The drifting raft teased by fickle winds.
- A time and place to reckon with mortality;
- the charts revealing no more than a place
- where there is everything to think about and nothing to know.
- Storms, perilous sand banks and seasickness take their toil.
- As Anthony, as if possessed, rambles and rants to ‘his’ invisible sailor
- Of virginity, VD,the Atlantic war and mortality.
- As Widdicombe’s ghostly teasing games commence.
- The crew convinced it is nothing more than his senility
- But the angel is angry, resenting his premature death
- And delights in diligent damage
- Until all dagger boards are broken
- and the rudder in smithereens
- No longer Anthony’s kindred spirit
- The AWOL angel grows tired of waiting
- ‘Couldn’t really jump. I’d prefer to stay on the boat, like Widdicombe.’ Anthonywhispers.
- The skies darken and rumble
- As enormous waves pound the deck
- Theengine long broken, deadly hidden reefs ahead
- Unanswered maydays
- Desperate useless flares light the fast approaching reefs
- Until sudden silent calm, as gentle waves nudge the raft safely to the shore
- The old man is humbled
- And the angel is no more.